Methods and systems for generating and providing program guides and content

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for identifying, assembling, and publishing content are described. A content item, such as a video, having a first time length, is identified by a system to be included in a program scheduled for a first time period. The video may be hosted on a third party system. A first span of time within the first program is allocated for the video, wherein the first span of time is longer than the first time length. The system determines, prior to or at the first time period, a time difference between a current length of the video and the first span of time. At least partly in response to determining that the video has a time length shorter than the first span of time, the system selects supplemental content based at least in part of the determined time difference to be streamed to user terminals over a data network within the first time period.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claimis identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the presentapplication are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57.

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to the identification, generation,organization, and distribution of content.

Description of the Related Art

Video sharing sites have become ever more popular. Users upload videosto a video sharing website. Other users can then navigate to and withinthe website to locate videos of interest. Users then watch the videosindependent of other users, that is, users do not watch the videos on aschedule, but rather at whatever random time a given user accesses thevideo. Thus, using conventional techniques, it is difficult for users tolocate videos of interest. Further, video viewing is an isolatingexperience, where users are viewing videos at different times, andoften, because of the difficulty in locating content, friendsinfrequently view the same videos.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects inorder to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary isnot an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intendedto neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nordelineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is topresent some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

An aspect of the disclosure is a method of synchronizing content with aprogram guide, and a system configured to perform the method or at leasta portion thereof. The method comprises some or all of the followingacts: identifying, by a first system, a first program previouslyscheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, the first programcomprising at least a first video hosted on a third party system, thethird party system under separate control from the first system, whereinthe first video has a length; determining by the first system, prior tothe first time period, whether the first video is still accessible fromthe third party system; at least partly in response to determining thatthe first video no longer accessible from the third party system:identifying, by the first system, at least one replacement video basedat least in part on the first video length; causing, at least in part,the at least one replacement video to be streamed to user terminals overa data network within the first time period.

An aspect of the disclosure is a method. The method comprises some orall of the following acts: identifying, by a first system, a firstprogram previously scheduled to be shown to users at a first timeperiod, the first program comprising at least a first content itemhosted on a third party system, the third party system under separatecontrol from the first system, wherein the first content item has alength; determining by the first system, prior to the first time period,whether the first content item is still accessible from the third partysystem; at least partly in response to determining that the firstcontent item no longer accessible from the third party system:identifying, by the first system, at least one replacement content itembased at least in part on the first content item length; causing, atleast in part, the at least one replacement content item to be streamedto user terminals over a data network within the first time period.

An aspect of the disclosure is a method of generating content, and asystem configured to perform the method or at least a portion thereof.The method comprises some or all of the following acts: identifying, bya first system, a first video to be included in a first programscheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, the first videohosted on a third party system, the third party system under separatecontrol from the first system, wherein the first video has a first timelength; allocating a first span of time with the first program for thefirst video to be provided to users, wherein the first span of time islonger than the first time length; determining, by the first system,prior to or at the first time period, a time difference between acurrent length of the first video and the first span of time; at leastpartly in response to determining that the first video has a time lengthshorter than the first span of time, causing, at least in part,supplemental content selected based at least in part of the determinedtime difference to be streamed to user terminals over a data networkwithin the first time period.

An aspect of the disclosure is a method of generating content, and asystem configured to perform the method or at least a portion thereof.The method comprises some or all of the following acts: identifying, bya first system, a first content item to be included in a first programscheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, the first contentitem hosted on a third party system, the third party system underseparate control from the first system, wherein the first content itemhas a first time length; allocating a first span of time with the firstprogram for the first content item to be provided to users, wherein thefirst span of time is longer than the first time length; determining, bythe first system, prior to or at the first time period, a timedifference between a current length of the first content item and thefirst span of time; at least partly in response to determining that thefirst content item has a time length shorter than the first span oftime, causing, at least in part, supplemental content selected based atleast in part of the determined time difference to be streamed to userterminals over a data network within the first time period.

An aspect of the disclosure is a method that comprises some or all ofthe following acts: identifying, by a first system comprising computerhardware configured with specific executable instructions and a networkinterface configured to communicate with user terminals and contenthosting systems, a first program, included in an electronic programguide as being scheduled to be shown to users at a first time period,wherein the first program comprises at least a first video having a timelength, the first video hosted on a third party system that providesstreaming video content, the third party system under separate controlfrom the first system; prior to the first time period, determiningwhether a content availability check is to be performed; at least partlyin response to determining that a content availability check is to beperformed, determining by the first system whether the first video isstill accessible; at least partly in response to determining that thefirst video no longer accessible: identifying, by the first system, atleast one replacement video based at least in part on the first videotime length, on data indicating the first program subject matter, and onmetadata accessed from a source of replacement content; causing, atleast in part, the at least one replacement video to be streamed to userterminals over a data network within the first time period; at leastpartly in response to determining that the first video is stillaccessible, causing, at least in part, the first video to be streamed toone or more user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod as part of the first program included in the electronic programguide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method ofsynchronizing content with a program guide, the method comprising someor all of the following acts: identifying, by a first system comprisingcomputer hardware configured with specific executable instructions and anetwork interface configured to communicate with user terminals andcontent hosting systems, a first program, listed in an electronicprogram guide provided to user terminals as being scheduled to be shownto users at a first time period, wherein the first program comprises atleast a first video having a time length, the first video hosted on athird party system that provides streaming video content, the thirdparty system under separate control from the first system; prior to thefirst time period, determining whether a content availability check isto be performed; at least partly in response to determining that acontent availability check is to be performed, transmitting, prior tothe first time period, a query over the network to the third partysystem via an application programming interface (API), and determiningby the first system whether the first video is still accessible from thethird party system, based at least in part on a result of the query; atleast partly in response to determining that the first video no longeraccessible from the third party system: identifying, by the firstsystem, at least one replacement video based at least in part on thefirst video time length, on data indicating the first program subjectmatter, and on metadata accessed from a source of replacement content;causing, at least in part, the at least one replacement video to bestreamed to user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod; at least partly in response to determining that the first videois still accessible from the third party system, causing, at least inpart, the first video to be streamed from the third party system to userterminals over a data network within the first time period as part ofthe first program listed in the electronic program guide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method, the methodcomprising some or all of the following acts: identifying, by a firstsystem comprising computer hardware configured with specific executableinstructions and a network interface configured to communicate with userterminals and content hosting systems, a first program, listed in anelectronic program guide provided to user terminals as being scheduledto be shown to users at a first time period, wherein the first programcomprises at least a first content having a time length, the firstcontent hosted on a third party system that provides streaming content,the third party system under separate control from the first system;prior to the first time period, determining whether a contentavailability check is to be performed; at least partly in response todetermining that a content availability check is to be performed,transmitting, prior to the first time period, a query over the networkto the third party system via an application programming interface(API), and determining by the first system whether the first content isstill accessible from the third party system, based at least in part ona result of the query; at least partly in response to determining thatthe first content no longer accessible from the third party system:identifying, by the first system, at least one replacement content basedat least in part on the first content time length, on data indicatingthe first program subject matter, and on metadata accessed from a sourceof replacement content; causing, at least in part, the at least onereplacement content to be streamed to user terminals over a data networkwithin the first time period; at least partly in response to determiningthat the first content is still accessible from the third party system,causing, at least in part, the first content to be streamed from thethird party system to user terminals over a data network within thefirst time period as part of the first program listed in the electronicprogram guide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a method that comprises some or all ofthe following acts: generating, by a first system comprising computerhardware configured with specific executable instructions, an electronicprogram guide including channels and channel programs; identifying, bythe first system, a first video to be included in a first programscheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, wherein the firstvideo has a first time length, wherein the electronic program guideincludes an entry for the first program; allocating a first span of timewithin the first program for the first video to be provided to users,wherein the first span of time is longer than the first time length;determining, by the first system, a current length of the first video;determining, by the first system, prior to or at the first time period,a time difference between a current length of the first video and thefirst span of time; at least partly in response to determining by thefirst system that the first video has a time length shorter than thefirst span of time: selecting, by the first system, supplemental contentbased at least in part of the determined time difference; and causing,at least in part, supplemental content selected based at least in partof the determined time difference to be streamed to user terminals overa data network within the first time period so that timing of theplaying of the first program corresponds to scheduling of the firstprogram in the electronic program guide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a system, comprising some or all of thefollowing: a network interface configured to communicate over a network;a computing system comprising one or more computing devices; and acomputer storage system comprising a non-transitory storage device, saidcomputer storage system having stored thereon executable programinstructions that direct the computer system to at least perform some orall of the following: identify a first program, listed in an electronicprogram guide provided to user terminals as being scheduled to be shownto users at a first time period, wherein the first program comprises atleast a first content item having a time length, the first content itemhosted on a third party system that provides streaming content itemcontent, the third party system under separate control from the system;prior to the first time period, determine whether a content availabilitycheck is to be performed; at least partly in response to a determinationthat a content availability check is to be performed, transmit, prior tothe first time period, a communication via the network interface overthe network to the third party system, and determine whether the firstcontent item is still accessible from the third party system, based atleast in part on a result of the communication; at least partly inresponse to a determination that the first content item no longeraccessible from the third party system: identify at least onereplacement content item based at least in part on the first contentitem time length, on data indicating the first program subject matter,and on metadata accessed from a source of replacement content; causing,at least in part, the at least one replacement content item to beaccessed by user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod; at least partly in response to a determination that the firstcontent item is still accessible from the third party system, cause, atleast in part, the first content item to be accessed by user terminalsfrom the third party system over a data network within the first timeperiod as part of the first program listed in the electronic programguide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer storage system comprising anon-transitory storage device, said computer storage system havingstored thereon executable program instructions that direct a computersystem to at least perform some or all of the following: identify afirst program, listed in an electronic program guide provided to userterminals as being scheduled to be shown to users at a first timeperiod, wherein the first program comprises at least a first contentitem having a time length, the first content item hosted on a thirdparty system that provides streaming content item content; prior to thefirst time period, determine whether a content availability check is tobe performed; at least partly in response to a determination that acontent availability check is to be performed, transmit, prior to thefirst time period, a communication via the network interface over thenetwork to the third party system, and determine whether the firstcontent item is still accessible from the third party system, based atleast in part on a result of the communication; at least partly inresponse to a determination that the first content item no longeraccessible from the third party system: identify at least onereplacement content item based at least in part on the first contentitem time length, on data indicating the first program subject matter,and on metadata accessed from a source of replacement content; causing,at least in part, the at least one replacement content item to beaccessed by user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod; at least partly in response to a determination that the firstcontent item is still accessible from the third party system, cause, atleast in part, the first content item to be accessed by user terminalsfrom the third party system over a data network within the first timeperiod as part of the first program listed in the electronic programguide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method ofsynchronizing content with a program guide, the method comprising someor all of the following acts: generating, by a first system comprisingcomputer hardware configured with specific executable instructions, anelectronic program guide listing channels and channel programs;identifying, by the first system, a first video to be included in afirst program scheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, thefirst video hosted on a third party system, the third party system underseparate control from the first system, wherein the first video has afirst time length, wherein the electronic program guide comprises alisting of the first program; allocating a first span of time within thefirst program for the first video to be provided to users, wherein thefirst span of time is longer than the first time length; determining, bythe first system, a current length of the first video, based at least inpart on length information accessed via an application programmerinterface (API) associated with the third party system; calculating, bythe first system, prior to or at the first time period, a timedifference between a current length of the first video and the firstspan of time; at least partly in response to determining by the firstsystem that the first video has a time length shorter than the firstspan of time: selecting, by the first system, supplemental content basedat least in part of the determined time difference; and causing, atleast in part, supplemental content selected based at least in part ofthe determined time difference to be streamed to user terminals over adata network within the first time period so that timing of the playingof the first program corresponds to scheduling of the first program inthe electronic program guide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method ofsynchronizing content with a program guide, the method comprising someor all of the following acts: optionally generating, by a first systemcomprising computer hardware configured with specific executableinstructions, an electronic program guide listing channels and channelprograms; identifying, by the first system, a first content item to beincluded in a first program scheduled to be shown to users at a firsttime period, the first content item hosted on a remote system, whereinthe first content item has a first time length, wherein the electronicprogram guide comprises a listing of the first program; allocating afirst span of time within the first program for the first content itemto be provided to users, wherein the first span of time is longer thanthe first time length; determining, by the first system, a currentlength of the first content item, based at least in part on lengthinformation accessed via an application programmer interface (API)associated with the third party system; determining, by the firstsystem, a time difference between a current length of the first contentitem and the first span of time; at least partly in response todetermining by the first system that the first content item has a timelength shorter than the first span of time: selecting, by the firstsystem, supplemental content based at least in part of the determinedtime difference; and causing, at least in part, supplemental contentselected based at least in part of the determined time difference to bestreamed to user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod so that timing of the playing of the first program corresponds toscheduling of the first program in the electronic program guide.

An aspect of the disclosure is a system, comprising some or all of thefollowing: a network interface configured to communicate over a network;a computing system comprising one or more computing devices; and acomputer storage system comprising a non-transitory storage device, saidcomputer storage system having stored thereon executable programinstructions that direct the computer system to at least perform some orall of the following: identify a first video to be included in a firstprogram scheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, the firstvideo hosted on a third party system, the third party system underseparate control from the system, wherein the first video has a firsttime length; allocate a first span of time within the first program forthe first video to be provided to users, wherein the first span of timeis longer than the first time length; determine a current length of thefirst video, based at least in part on length information accessed viaan application programmer interface (API) associated with the thirdparty system; calculate, prior to or at the first time period, a timedifference between a current length of the first video and the firstspan of time; at least partly in response to a determination that thefirst video has a time length shorter than the first span of time:select supplemental content based at least in part of the determinedtime difference; and cause, at least in part, supplemental contentselected based at least in part of the determined time difference to bestreamed to user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer storage system comprising anon-transitory storage device, said computer storage system havingstored thereon executable program instructions that direct a computersystem to at least perform some or all of the following: identify afirst video to be included in a first program scheduled to be shown tousers at a first time period, the first video hosted on a third partysystem, the third party system under separate control from the system,wherein the first video has a first time length; allocate a first spanof time within the first program for the first video to be provided tousers, wherein the first span of time is longer than the first timelength; determine a current length of the first video, based at least inpart on length information, optionally accessed via an applicationprogrammer interface (API) associated with the third party system;calculate or otherwise determine, prior to or at the first time period,a time difference between a current length of the first video and thefirst span of time; at least partly in response to a determination thatthe first video has a time length shorter than the first span of time:select supplemental content based at least in part of the determinedtime difference; and cause, at least in part, supplemental contentselected based at least in part of the determined time difference to bestreamed to user terminals over a data network within the first timeperiod.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method, the methodcomprising some or all of the following acts: generating, by a firstsystem comprising computer hardware configured with specific executableinstructions, an electronic program guide including at least a firstprogram scheduled to begin at a first time and end at a second time, asecond program following the first program, the second program scheduledto begin at a third time and end at a fourth time; identifying, by thefirst system, a first video item to be included in a first programscheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, wherein the firstvideo item has a first time length, wherein the electronic program guideincludes an entry for the first program; allocating a first span of timewithin the first program for the first video item to be provided tousers; determining, by the first system, a current length of the firstvideo item; determining, by the first system a time difference between acurrent length of the first video item and the first span of time; atleast partly in response to determining by the first system that thefirst video item has a time length longer than the first span of time:causing, at least in part, the second program to begin at a delayed timeon a first user terminal, wherein the first user terminal had beenplaying the first program, the delayed time based at least in part onthe time difference between the current length of the first video itemand the first span of time; causing, at least in part, the secondprogram to begin at a non-delayed time on a second user terminal,wherein the second user terminal had not been playing the first program.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method of playingstreaming video content, the method comprising some or all of thefollowing acts: detecting, by a first system comprising computerhardware configured with specific executable instructions, that a firstprogram is scheduled to be accessed by a user terminal, wherein thefirst program is comprised of at least: a first video item configured tobe streamed from a first source and to be viewed using a first videoplayer, and a second item configured to be streamed from a second sourceand to be viewed using a second video player; accessing, by the firstsystem, metadata for the first video item, the metadata comprising anidentification of the first video item and the first video player; basedat least in part on the metadata for the first video, determining, bythe first system, that the first video player is to be used to play thefirst video item; instructing a unified content player executing on auser terminal to access the first video item from the first source andto utilize the first video player to play the first video item, whereinthe first video item is streamed from the first source, wherein theunified content player comprises a user interface (e.g., including atleast a rewind control positioned at a first location and having a firstappearance, and a pause control positioned at a second location andhaving a second appearance); accessing, by the first system, metadatafor the second video item, the metadata comprising an identification ofthe second video item and the second video player; based at least inpart on the metadata for the second video, determining, by the firstsystem, that the second video player is to be used to play the secondvideo item; determining timing for playing of the second video item;based at least in part on the determined timing for playing of thesecond video item, instructing the unified content player executing onthe user terminal to access the second video item from the second sourceand to utilize the second video player to play the second video item,wherein the second video item is streamed from the second source, andwherein an appearance of the unified player user interface does notchange relative to the appearance of the unified player user interfacewhen the first video player is utilized. Optionally, the metadata forthe first video item comprises an identifier identifying the firstsource, and a unique identifier corresponding to the first content item.Optionally, the first video player comprises program code accessed, by abrowser hosted on the user terminal, at least in part from the firstsource. Optionally, the first video player comprises program codeaccessed, by a browser hosted on the user terminal, at least in partfrom the first system. Optionally, the first video player comprisesprogram code accessed, by a browser hosted on the user terminal, atleast in part from the first system and from the first source.Optionally, the first video player and the second video player arepresented via a browser or a dedicated application hosted on the userterminal. Optionally, a timer is used to determine timing for playing ofthe second video item. Optionally, the act of determining timing forplaying of the second video item is based at least in part on detectionof an indication from the first video player that the playing of thefirst video item is or is about to be completed. Optionally, the unifiedcontent player comprises a stage module configured to ensure anappropriate video player is being used for respective items of contentof video content. Optionally, the method further comprises utilizing aplurality of native bridge application programming interfaces for arespective plurality of different native environments. Optionally, theunified content player is configured to provide a common wrapper for aplurality of different video players. Optionally, the first systemcomprises the user terminal and/or a system remote from the userterminal.

An aspect of the disclosure is a system, comprising some or all of thefollowing: a computing system comprising one or more computing devices;and a computer storage system comprising a non-transitory storagedevice, said computer storage system having stored thereon executableprogram instructions that direct the computer system to at least performsome or all of the following: detect that a first program is scheduledto be accessed by a user terminal, wherein the first program iscomprised of at least: a first video item configured to be streamed froma first source and to be viewed using a first video player, and a seconditem configured to be streamed from a second source and to be viewedusing a second video player; access metadata for the first video item,the metadata comprising an identification of the first video item andthe first video player; based at least in part on the metadata for thefirst video, determine that the first video player is to be used to playthe first video item; instruct a unified content player executing on auser terminal to access the first video item from the first source andto utilize the first video player to play the first video item, whereinthe first video item is streamed from the first source, wherein theunified content player comprises a user interface including at least arewind control positioned at a first location and having a firstappearance, and a pause control positioned at a second location andhaving a second appearance; access metadata for the second video item,the metadata comprising an identification of the second video item andthe second video player; based at least in part on the metadata for thesecond video, determine that the second video player is to be used toplay the second video item; determine timing for playing of the secondvideo item; based at least in part on the determined timing for playingof the second video item, instruct the unified content player executingon the user terminal to access the second video item from the secondsource and to utilize the second video player to play the second videoitem, wherein the second video item is streamed from the second source,and wherein an appearance of the unified player user interface does notchange relative to the appearance of the unified player user interfacewhen the first video player is utilized.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer storage system comprising anon-transitory storage device, said computer storage system havingstored thereon executable program instructions that direct a computersystem to at least perform some or all of the following: detect that afirst program is scheduled to be accessed by a user terminal, whereinthe first program is comprised of at least: a first video itemconfigured to be streamed from a first source and to be viewed using afirst video player, and a second item configured to be streamed from asecond source and to be viewed using a second video player; accessmetadata for the first video item, the metadata comprising anidentification of the first video item and the first video player; basedat least in part on the metadata for the first video, determine that thefirst video player is to be used to play the first video item; instructa unified content player executing on a user terminal to access thefirst video item from the first source and to utilize the first videoplayer to play the first video item, wherein the first video item isstreamed from the first source, wherein the unified content playercomprises a user interface including at least a rewind controlpositioned at a first location and having a first appearance, and apause control positioned at a second location and having a secondappearance; access metadata for the second video item, the metadatacomprising an identification of the second video item and the secondvideo player; based at least in part on the metadata for the secondvideo, determine that the second video player is to be used to play thesecond video item; determine timing for playing of the second videoitem; based at least in part on the determined timing for playing of thesecond video item, instruct the unified content player executing on theuser terminal to access the second video item from the second source andto utilize the second video player to play the second video item,wherein the second video item is streamed from the second source, andwherein an appearance of the unified player user interface does notchange relative to the appearance of the unified player user interfacewhen the first video player is utilized.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method and asystem for performing the method, the method comprising some or all ofthe following acts: generating, by a first system comprising computerhardware configured with specific executable instructions, an electronicprogram guide listing channels and channel programs, including at leasta first program scheduled to begin at a first time and end at a secondtime, a second program following the first program, the second programscheduled to begin at a third time and end at a fourth time;identifying, by the first system, a first video item to be included in afirst program scheduled to be shown to users at a first time period, thefirst video item hosted on a third party system, the third party systemunder separate control from the first system, wherein the first videoitem has a first time length, wherein the electronic program guidecomprises a listing of the first program; allocating a first span oftime within the first program for the first video item to be provided tousers; determining, by the first system, a current length of the firstvideo item, based at least in part on length information accessed via anapplication programmer interface (API) associated with the third partysystem; calculating or otherwise determining, by the first system a timedifference between a current length of the first video item and thefirst span of time; at least partly in response to determining by thefirst system that the first video item has a time length longer than thefirst span of time: causing, at least in part, the second program tobegin at a delayed time on a first user terminal, wherein the first userterminal had been playing the first program, the delayed time based atleast in part on the calculated time difference between the currentlength of the first video item and the first span of time; causing, atleast in part, the second program to begin at a non-delayed time on asecond user terminal, wherein the second user terminal had not beenplaying the first program. Optionally, when the first video item isidentified by the first system, the first video item comprises primarycontent and a first advertisement, the first advertisement having afirst advertisement length, and when determining the time differencebetween a current length of the first video item and the first span oftime, the first video item comprises the primary content and a secondadvertisement and not the first advertisement, the second advertisementhaving a different time length then the first advertisement length.Optionally, when the first video item is identified by the first system,the first video item comprises primary content, and when determining thetime difference between a current length of the first video item and thefirst span of time, the first video item comprises the primary contentand a video advertisement, wherein the video advertisement is streamedfrom an advertisement server. Optionally, when a first instantiation ofthe electronic program guide is displayed by the first user terminal anda second instantiation of the electronic program guide is displayed bythe second user terminal, the method further comprises causing, at leastin part, the instantiation of the electronically program guide displayedon the first user terminal to be dynamically adjusted to reflect thedelayed time, without performing a corresponding dynamic adjustment ofthe instantiation of the electronic program guide displayed on thesecond user terminal.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method and asystem for performing the method, the method comprising some or all ofthe following acts: generating, by a first system comprising computerhardware configured with specific executable instructions, an electronicprogram guide listing channels and channel programs, including at leasta first program scheduled to begin at a first time and end at a secondtime, a second program following the first program, the second programscheduled to begin at a third time and end at a fourth time;identifying, by the first system, a first video item to be included in afirst program scheduled to be shown to users at a first time period,wherein the first video item has a first time length, wherein theelectronic program guide comprises a listing of the first program;allocating a first span of time within the first program for the firstvideo item to be provided to users; determining, by the first system, acurrent length of the first video item, based at least in part on dataaccessed from a first user terminal playing the first program; at leastpartly in response to determining by the first system that the firstvideo item, as played by the first user terminal, has a time lengthlonger than the first span of time: causing, at least in part, thesecond program to begin at a delayed time on a first user terminal,wherein the first user terminal had been playing the first program;causing, at least in part, the second program to begin at a non-delayedtime on a second user terminal, wherein the second user terminal had notbeen playing the first program with an extended play time. The currentlength of the first video time may be extended when played by the firstuser terminal as a result of buffering delays. Optionally, when a firstinstantiation of the electronic program guide is displayed by the firstuser terminal and a second instantiation of the electronic program guideis displayed by the second user terminal, the method further comprisescausing, at least in part, the instantiation of the electronicallyprogram guide displayed on the first user terminal to be dynamicallyadjusted to reflect the delayed time, without performing a correspondingdynamic adjustment of the instantiation of the electronic program guidedisplayed on the second user terminal.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method and asystem for performing the method, the method comprising some or all ofthe following acts: maintaining a data store of channel accessrandomizer rules, and/or maintaining a data store of user information,the user information comprising explicitly provided user preferencesand/or user data from which one or more user preferences are inferred;generating a program guide of a plurality of channels of content;detecting a user activation of a channel randomizer control; generatinga channel scan ordering based at least in part on: the program guide;the channel access randomizer rules; the explicitly provider userpreferences; and/or the inferred user preferences; scanning through atleast a portion of the plurality of channels based at least in part onthe generated scan channel ordering, and displaying content of ascanned-to channel for at least a period of time before proceeding to anext scanned-to channel. Optionally, the user data from which one ormore preferences are inferred comprises user viewing history and/or usernavigation. Optionally, the method further comprises determining whichchannels are to be scanned and/or which channels are not to be scannedbased at least in part on the user data.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method and asystem for performing the method, the method comprising some or all ofthe following acts: maintaining a data store of channel accessrandomizer rules; maintaining a data store of user information, the userinformation comprising explicitly provided user preferences and userdata from which one or more user preferences are inferred; generating aprogram guide of a plurality of channels of content; detecting a useractivation of a channel randomizer control; generating a channel scanordering based at least in part on: the program guide; the channelaccess randomizer rules; the explicitly provider user preferences; andthe inferred user preferences; scanning through at least a portion ofthe plurality of channels based at least in part on the generated scanchannel ordering, and displaying content of a scanned-to channel for atleast a period of time before proceeding to a next scanned-to channel.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method, the methodcomprising some or all of the following acts: accessing a channelschedule, the channel schedule including a plurality of programs,including at least a first program and a second program, scheduled atrespective times; before or during the first program, accessing metadatafor the second program, the second program scheduled for a later timethan the first program; based at least in part of the metadata for thesecond program, dynamically generating interstitial content, theinterstitial content providing information on the second program;causing the interstitial content to be presented to the user via a userterminal during or after the first program, and prior to the secondprogram.

An aspect of the disclosure is a computer-implemented method, the methodcomprising some or all of the following acts: accessing a programschedule for a first program, the first program comprised of a pluralityof content items; before or during a first content item in the pluralityof content items, accessing metadata for a subsequent content item inthe plurality of content items; based at least in part of the metadatafor the subsequent content item, dynamically generating interstitialcontent, the interstitial content providing information on thesubsequent content item; causing the interstitial content to bepresented to the user via a user terminal during or after the firstcontent item, and prior to the subsequent content item.

While reference may be made to a program guide, the program guide neednot be displayed to a user for the user to view or listen to programs orchannels. For example, the user may access a program or channel viavoice command, a gesture, remote control, or otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A-1C illustrates an example system environment and certaincomponents thereof.

FIGS. 2A-2L illustrate example program guide user interfaces.

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate example backend guide user interfaces.

FIGS. 4A-4G illustrate example backend guide user interfaces.

FIG. 5A illustrates an example program generation user interface.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example program guide user interface including auser-generated program.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example unified content player architecture.

FIGS. 7-13 illustrate example processes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain embodiments described herein overcome some or all of the noteddeficiencies of conventional video sharing sites. Certain embodimentslogically assemble user and/or professional content (e.g., streamedcontent) from one or more sites into channels, and provide a contentsite where specific videos are provided for display to viewers atspecific times, according to a program schedule. Optionally, the contentfor a given channel, or a program within a channel, is streamed frommultiple third party content sites to the user terminals, withoutpassing through the content site system that organizes the third partycontent into channels and programs.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example content scheduling system 102 in anexample environment. FIGS. 1B-1C illustrate example components of thecontent scheduling system 102. The content scheduling system 102 mayhost a program guide (described in greater detail herein), programscheduling information, channel definitions, channel categories, useraccount information, video player schema information for video playersor other content players from different websites, etc. The contentscheduling system 102 may include one or more of the following servicemodules, discussed in greater detail herein: a channel generation module150, a programming module 152, a content substitution module 154, asupplemental content identification module 156, an automatic programgeneration module 158, a program guide generation module 160 and/orother modules. It is understood that the functions of the modules may beperformed by fewer or more modules.

The example content scheduling system 102 includes a processing unit170, a network interface 172, a non-transitory computer-readable mediumdrive 173, and an input/output device interface 174, all of which maycommunicate with one another by way of a communication bus. The networkinterface 172 may provide the content scheduling system 102 withconnectivity to one or more networks (e.g., network 116) or computingsystems. The processing unit 170 may thus receive information andinstructions from other computing devices, systems, or services, such auser terminals and third party content hosting services, via a network.The processing unit 170 may also communicate to and from memory 176 andfurther provide output information via the input/output device interface174. The input/output device interface 174 may also accept input fromvarious input devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, digital pen, touchscreen, etc.

The memory 176 may contain computer program instructions that theprocessing unit 170 may execute in order to implement one or moreembodiments of the present disclosure. The memory 176 generally includesRAM, ROM and/or other persistent or non-transitory computer-readablestorage media. The memory 176 may store an operating system 180 thatprovides computer program instructions for use by the processing unit170 in the general administration and operation of the contentscheduling system 102. The memory 176 may further include otherinformation for implementing aspects of the present disclosure.

Optionally, the memory 176 includes an interface module 178. Theinterface module 178 can be configured to facilitate generating one ormore interfaces through which a third party user, utilizing a compatiblecomputing device, may send to, or receive from, the content schedulingsystem 102 content, content metadata, preferences, contentrecommendations, instruction data, or otherwise communicate with thecontent scheduling system 102. Specifically, the interface module 174may be configured to facilitate processing functions described herein,including generating and providing program guides, schedulingprogramming, generating recommendations, providing program guidenavigational tools, providing DVR functionality, dynamically generatingprograms, enabling a user to generate a program, providing userinterfaces, etc. The user interfaces described herein can be implementedas a graphical user interface (GUI), web-based user interface, computerprogram, smartphone or tablet program or application, touchscreen,command line interface, gesture, voice, or text interface, etc., or anycombination thereof. A user may cause a program to be played by acontent player by selecting a program from a program guide. A programmay also be displayed without a user having to select a program orchannel and without the display of a program guide. Further, the programguide need not be displayed to a user for the user to view or listen toprograms or channels. For example, the user may access a program orchannel via voice command (e.g., recognized by a voice command system),a body/hand gesture or a wand gesture (e.g., recognized by acamera-equipped gesture recognition system, or a wand motion trackingsystem), a remote control, or otherwise.

In addition, the memory 176 may include a data processing module 182that may be executed by the processing unit 170. Optionally, the dataprocessing module 182 implements aspects of the present disclosure. Forexample, the data processing module 182 can be configured to processuser queries, instructions, data and content from the data stores 162,164, etc.

The content scheduling system 102 may communicate with a variety ofthird party content hosting systems 104, 106, 108 (wherein the thirdparty systems are not operated by the same entity that operates thecontent scheduling system 102), from which content may be streamed.Optionally, a content programmer (sometimes referred to as a curator)defines a program and/or a channel. For example, the content programmermay define a channel to be “cats”. The content programmer may define aprogram for the “cats” channel to be “cats playing with dogs”, with atime length of 30 minutes, to be provided to users at a specifiedday/time (or at recurring days/times). The content programmer may searchfor, identify, and select program-appropriate content (e.g., videocontent, music content, still image content, social streams, textmessages, etc.) from one or more content sites, such as third partyvideo, music, image, social media, blogs (e.g., microblogs), and/orother hosting sites that may host video clips, music media, stillimages, graphics, social media, blog/microblog messages (e.g., textand/or audio-video messages), etc., from one or many users. The contentprogrammer may define an order for the selected clips and/or other formof content to be presented in when the program is viewed or listened toby users. For example, the content scheduling system 102 may record clipsequencing information specified by a programmer or the system toindicate the order that selected clips will be played back as part of aprogram. The system 102 may associate metadata with a given clip in aprogram, such as a starting point/time and a stop point/time for eachclip. Thus, the system 102 may cause the clips in a given program to besequenced so as to provide a user with a seamless viewing experience.Optionally, the programmer may indicate where advertisements may beinserted between clips. For example, the programmer may specify that anadvertisement may be inserted between the 4th and 5th clip and the 9thand 10th clip. Then, during playback, one or more advertisements may beselected and inserted at the designated points between clips.

Optionally, a mediation layer is provided to dynamically determine theplacement of advertising on programs comprised of short videos or othercontent. The mediation layer may include defined rules (e.g., programmerdefined rules) that specify when an advertisement is to be displayed(e.g., within a specified time block within a program, based on how muchof a particular program a user has viewed, based on the subject matterof a given item of content (e.g., as determined from associatedmetadata), based on what is occurring or being displayed in the content,between specified clips, etc.).

Optionally, a single clip or other streaming content being viewed by aviewer may be automatically paused during playback at a designated pointor time (or randomly), and an advertisement (e.g., optionally from asource different than the clip, such as from an advertisement server)may be selected (e.g., by the advertisement server), streamed and playedto the user. When the advertisement has completed playing, the playingof the clip may be resumed. Thus, an advertisement may optionally beplayed as a mid-roll advertisement with respect to a given clip.

A programming module may keep a running tally of the sum of the lengths(in time) of the video clips and/or other content selected by thecontent programmer for a program, and display the running tally to thecontent programmer. The programming module may provide a visual and/oraudible alert to the user when the running tally is equal to the definedtime length of the program, and may provide a different notificationwhen the running tally is greater than the defined time length of theprogram. If the total length of the selected clips and/or other contentexceeds the defined program length, the programming module mayoptionally trim the last clip in the program or a portion of each clipand/or other content in the program to bring the total length of theprogram to be about equal to the defined length of the program. Thecontent scheduling system records the locators for the selected clips(or other content, such as image content, social streams, blog (e.g.,microblogs), text messages, etc.), or a locator for a playlist of theselected clips or other content, the ordering of the clips and/or othercontent, and day(s)/time(s) the video program is to be presented tousers, and then causes the program (with the clips in the defined order)to be presented accordingly at the scheduled days/times and causes aprogram guide to include a listing for the program at the specifieddays/times for the specified duration.

Optionally, the system 102 may automatically perform at least a portionof the content selections for a channel or program, optionally using forexample, a channel generation module or an automatic program generationmodule. For example, the system 102 may search for and locate videocontent using search terms (e.g., specified by a content programmer)corresponding to various categories/subjects. By way of illustration, ifthe system is seeking to define a channel of videos and/or other contentregarding cats, the system may issue a search for videos of cats. Thesystem may issue the search request using the search engine of one ormore third party content hosting sites (e.g., by submitting the searchrequest and search terms using an application programming interfaceassociated with the content hosting sites). The content hosting sitesmay use tags (e.g., assigned by the user that posted the video, assignedby other users, assigned by an operator of the video hosting sites,etc.) associated with the video content to identify videos correspondingto the search request. By way of further example, if the system isinstructed to include microblog entries as part of the cat channel, thesystem 102 may search for microblog entries (e.g., TWITTER® tweets) thatinclude cat related text or hashtags (e.g., “#funnycat”).

The system 102 may use further criteria in selecting among videos and/orother content for the cat channel or for a specific program. For examplethe system may issue a search query for “cats”, and optionally filterthe results based on one or more criteria. Optionally, the system maysearch for cat videos and/or other content of a specific length or rangeof lengths (e.g., 5 minutes, between 4 minutes and 6 minutes, etc.).Other criteria may be used as well in determining which videos and/orother content to select and include in a given program for a givenchannel. For example, the system may access the number of views on thethird party video hosting site and/or the user ratings provided by usersof the third party video hosting site in determining which videos toselect.

By way of illustration, the system may be programmed to select onlythose videos which have more than a threshold number of positiveindications (e.g., more than 500 positive indications (e.g., “thumbs up”votes)), and/or greater than a specified percentage of positive postingindications (e.g., 75% of users, that provide an indication as towhether or not they like the video, indicate that they like the video)or a specified ratio of positive indications vs. negative indications(e.g., a ratio of at least 3/1 of positive indications vs. negativeindications). In addition or instead, the system may access and/oranalyze other types of indications. For example, the indications (e.g.,social presence, social rating, number of followers, number of postedvideos, aggregated number of views for all videos posted by author forvideos posted on one or more sites, audience size and/or type, otherauthor activities, etc.) may relate to the author/source of an item ofcontent generally. For example, a threshold may be set with respect toan author's number of followers, social rating, influence rating, numberof friends (on a social networking site), etc. Such indications may beaccessed from the third party video hosting site on which the content ishosted and/or from other sites and sources (e.g., social networkingsites, influence scoring sites, microblog sites, etc.).

By way of further illustration, in this example, the system may selectvideos for the cat channel that have a tag and/or title of “cat”, haveat least 600 views and/or have at least a 75% approval rating. Thesystem 102 may in addition or instead select the top 50 (or othernumber) most viewed cat videos or the top 50 (or other number) ratedvideos for the channel. The system 102 or other content programmer mayin addition or instead select videos of cats from the top 50 ranked (orother number) authors based on the number of followers they have and/ortheir influence score. The system 102 may assemble a channel and aprogram based on the identified videos from one or more third partysites.

By way of further example, the system may access the number of followersa blogger (e.g., a microblogger) has and/or the number of times a givenblog post has been re-posted by others in determining which blog poststo select for a program. Other example factors that may be taken intoaccount in selecting content may include the number of replies that werereceived in response to a content posting, the number of likes a postingreceived, the number of different social networking sites a posting wasreposted too, an engagement or influence rating of a posting user (whichmay be based at least in part on engagement measurements, such as theratio of reactions generated by content posted by the user over thenumber of content postings, and/or where the rating may be generated bythe system 102 and/or accessed from one or more influence ratingservices, such as KLOUT®, KRED®, PEERINDEX®, etc.), etc.

The system 102 may use the supplemental content identification module orother tool to periodically review the video hosting websites to ensurethat the selected videos for a given program are still available to bestreamed to the user display. If the system 102 determines that certainvideos that had already been included in scheduled program are no longeravailable, the system may find alternative videos of similar length(e.g., based on a length tag or other length indication) and subjectmatter (e.g., because the alternative video had been previously manuallydesignated as an alternate video from the specific program, based on asubject tag or other indication) to substitute in place of the missingvideos, as discussed in greater detail herein. Similarly, the system 102may periodically review other content hosting websites to ensure thatthe selected content items (e.g., microblog postings, social networkingpage postings, etc.) for a given program are still available to beprovided to the user terminal. If the system 102 determines that certainother content items that have already been included in scheduled programare no longer available, the system may find alternative content ofsimilar length (e.g., based on a length tag or other length indication),type, and/or subject matter to substitute in place of the missingcontent.

The system 102 may also communicate with a variety of user terminalsover a network 116 (e.g., via the Internet). The system may provide userterminals 110, 112, 114 with access to the program guide (e.g., as a webapp via a web browser and/or via a dedicated application, such as aphone app hosted on a user terminal) and enable the user terminals toaccess programs streamed directly from the content hosting systems 104,106, 108, and/or via the system 102, according to the timing of theprogram guide schedule. The system 102 may also provide simulateddigital video recorder (DVR) functionality as described elsewhereherein. The system 102 may also host administrator user interfaces andassociated programs. A mobile device 118 may have an applicationinstalled thereon that enables the mobile device to act as a remotecontrol and enables the user to navigate the program guide on a userterminal via inputs on the mobile device 118.

The system 102 may include data stores 162, 164 that store content to bestreamed to users (e.g., backup/alternate content as discussed herein,standard channel content, promotional/advertisement content, etc.),location information for content to be streamed to users (e.g., URLs tovideo content on third party hosting sites 104, 106, 108, URLs to musiccontent, image content, social content, microblogs, etc., or anycombination thereof on local or third party content hosting sites),program schedules, user account information (e.g., user channel andcontent preferences (e.g., genre, program, subject matter, contentand/or channel likes and/or dislikes provided by the user via one ormore interfaces), user specifications of channels to be blocked, userreminder instructions, user bookmarks, user viewing history (e.g., whichchannels and programs the user has watched, how often the user watches agiven channel or program, how long a user watches a given program orchannel, etc.), rules, and/or other information.

By way of example, user account information (e.g., user channel andcontent preferences explicitly provided by the user, user channel andcontent preferences as determined from the user's content viewinghistory, etc.), user behaviors (e.g., how long a user watches contentper day or week, how many times in a specified time period the userchanges channels, how often per specified time period the user tries anew channel or show (a channel or show the user has not previouslyviewed), etc.), promoted content (e.g., content sponsored by anadvertiser or other third party), and/or data from third parties may beused in generating content recommendations for the user and/or inorganizing how a program guide is presented to the user. Optionally, theprogram guide generation module 160 may be utilized to generate and/orpersonalize program guides. For example, some or all of the foregoingdata may optionally be used in determining: the ordering of channels inthe electronic program guide (e.g., which channels are presented first,second, third, etc.); which, if any channels are to excluded from theprogram guide (e.g., channels that the system determines are of lowinterest to the user); which channels are to be highlighted (e.g., viacolor, animation, pop-up interfaces or otherwise, etc.), what types ofinformation are to be included in the program guide, etc. Thus, aprogram guide may be automatically generated and customized for a givenuser.

Optionally, an artificial intelligence engine may be provided whichlearns the user's preferences and interests (e.g., based on the useraccount information and viewing and/or navigation behavior) andrecommends other content (e.g., other programs and channels) via text,graphics, and/or a computer generated voice track synchronized with thelips and facial movements of a computer generated host (which may appearas a human or which may appear as a cartoon figure, animal, orotherwise). The computer generated host may be configured to act aschannel or program host.

The content hosting systems 104, 106, 108 may enable users to upload orotherwise post media content (e.g., recorded and/or live streamingcontent), such as videos, social media content, or other content, and toprovide media titles and/or other tags (e.g. descriptive, subject mattertags). The videos or other content may be associated with metadata, suchas length of the videos or other content and/or length of advertisementstreamed as a pre-roll or post-roll video advertisement). The usersand/or the hosting systems may assign a categorization tag to the mediacontent (e.g., humor, cats, licensed television shows, science, film andentertainment, gaming, etc.), and may record and post viewer ratinginformation, and track and post the number of views. Some or all of thisinformation may be accessed and used by the system 102 (e.g., using anapplication programing interface (API)), as similarly discussed herein.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example interactive program guide for a pluralityof channels and time periods and a viewing area to view a currentlyplaying program for a user-selected channel. It is understood that theprogram guide can have fewer or additional features, and may have adifferent appearance and controls. The program guide may be accessed,displayed, and interacted with using a browser (e.g., as a web app codedusing a browser-supported programming language, such as JavaScript),using a dedicated application (e.g., a mobile device app (e.g., a phoneapp or a tablet app), a game console app, a personal computer app, asmart television app, a streaming device app, etc.), or otherwise.Optionally, program guide functionality may be provided by a system thatthe user may connect to the user's playback device. For example, thesystem may be in the form of a dongle or stick that the user can pluginto a playback device port (e.g., an HDMI port) or wirelessly connectto the playback device. In this example, the program guide is in theform of a grid, although other arrangements and formats may be used.

In this example, on the left side of the program guide (the verticalaxis), channel numbers are provided (although other channel namingconventions may be used, such as titles, letters, colors, etc.). On thehorizontal axis, time periods are listed. Program titles are provided,with an indication (e.g., a graphical indication and/or numericalstart/stop times) as to when a given program starts and ends. Thus, theprograms listed by the program guide are scheduled/planned events,typically with a specified duration, within a channel timeline. The usercan scroll over the channels on the left side and the user interfacewill present additional information regarding the channels and/orregarding programs and episodes of recurring programs. The user canscroll forward and backward thorough the program timeline by mousingover the timeline header or otherwise. The viewing area (and program)may be displayed at the same time as the program guide, or the viewingarea may be closed to provide a larger area for the display of theprogram guide. Similarly, the program guide may be closed or overlaid toprovide a larger area for the display of the viewing area (e.g., byactivating a “full screen” control provided by the user interface).

Within the program guide, there are individual links by channel that areaccessed by the user's browser when the channel is changed. For example,the link for the channel “Top 40” may be in the form ofhttp://pluto.tv/#!channels/Top %2040&_=_. A given channel may haveassociated content “playlists,” which are a series of clips organizedinto scheduled programs/episodes and which may be accessed by the userbrowser. Thus, a playlist may optionally be in the form of a list ofclips (e.g., compiled by human content programmers or automatically bythe system), which share a similar theme, message or subject, and thatare organized into a program with a specified duration.

The viewing area displays the currently playing program for a userselected channel. Optionally, information regarding the program isdisplayed in conjunction with the program. Some of the information maybe pulled from the metadata of the currently playing clip and some ofthe information may be pulled from the channel name and the programname. For example, the viewing area user interface may display thecorresponding channel number, the channel name, the program name, thename of the currently playing clip, and/or other information. It isunderstood that a user does not have to select a specific program toview the program. The user can select a channel, and the programs forthat channel will continuously play on the user's terminal according tothe schedule until the user navigates to another channel, pauses aprogram, closes the program guide application, etc. The program guidemay emphasize the currently playing channel and/or program in theprogram listing (e.g., using color, bolding, animation, or otherwise).

Optionally, an “all channels” control is provided. The user can activatethe “all channels,” control, and in response the user interface willlist all the current active channels (although the user may need toscroll through the channel listing to view all the active channels). Theuser can also select a categories control, and in response, the userinterface will display channel groupings, where channels are groupedaccording to theme/category (e.g., 100-200 children; 300-400 sports;500-600 on-demand, 700-800 pay-per-view, 900-1000 user generatedchannels, etc.), and the names and/or channel numbers for each channelare provided. An example channel categories user interface isillustrated in FIG. 2B. The various categories may optionally bevisually indicated using separate, spaced apart, color coded rectanglesfor each category, with a category name as a header, and with a listingof channels for each category.

The user can also activate a control which, when detected, causes theuser interface to display additional or fewer channels in the grid or todisplay only channels the user had previously indicated as beingfavorite or preferred channels of the user.

Optionally, as noted above, in addition to displaying scheduledprograms, the same program guide user interface may optionally also liston-demand programs (e.g., free on-demand content, pay-per-view movies,music, television shows, or other content that are part of asubscription package, etc.), where a user can click on an on-demandprogram listing at any time and have the program streamed to the user.The on-demand content listings may optionally be grouped so that theyare listed as adjacent channels (e.g., channels 500-600 may be dedicatedto on-demand channels). The grouped on-demand content listings may bedisplayed above or below the scheduled programing channels, or betweenan upper set and a lower set of scheduled programing channels.

If there is a fee associated with viewing an item of on-demand content(e.g., the content is pay-per-view content, or is rentable for aspecific period of time), optionally associated fee information isaccessed from a data store and provided for display within or inassociation with the on-demand listing. If the user clicks on an item offee-based content, the user may be prompted to enter payment informationor to agree that previously provided payment information may be used tocharge the fee. The user may then be charged the fee and may view thefee-based content. Optionally, the grouping of on-demand channels may bedisplayed as a single entry, and an expand control may be providedwhich, if activated by the user, causes each on-demand channel entry tobe displayed. Thus, optionally, the same program guide may displaylistings for, and access to both on-demand and linear, scheduled,channels.

Optionally, a randomizer control (e.g., a button or menu entry) isprovided, which when activated by a user, causes the system to generatein substantially real-time a program and/or channel of non-scheduledcontent and/or content not specifically selected by the user (e.g.,where the program or channel is not simply a playlist defined by theuser). However, optionally, the content is not truly randomly selected,but may be selected based on one or more criteria. Optionally, some orall of the content is randomly selected and/or handpicked by anoperator. For example, the system may access user account information(e.g., a user's content preferences, viewing behavior, and/or viewinghistory) to be used in selecting, in substantially real-time, one ormore items of content to be displayed to the user as a program orchannel. For example, if the user's account information indicates thatthe user likes baseball and skateboarding bloopers but is not interestedin football bloopers, the randomizer may select from one or more sourcesbaseball and skateboarding blooper video content, and generate a programfor the user from selected baseball and skateboarding blooper videocontent, while excluding football blooper video content from theprogram.

Optionally, an intelligent channel scan mode is provided that determinesa priority order for channels to jump to, in response to a useractivating a scan control based at least in part on processed set(s) ofdata. By way of illustration, a scan control may be provided, which whenactivated, causes a player to cycle through channels, presenting contentfrom each channel cycled through for a period of time (e.g., 1 second, 3second, 5 seconds, or other period of time, or to the end of the currentcontent item (e.g., video clip) or the end of the current program, whichis optionally settable by the user) before jumping to the next channel.If the user likes content being provided by a channel, the user canactivate the scan control again or a play control to stop scanning andto enable the content of the current channel to be presented. The scanmode may be configured to scan though each available channel or to scanthrough only a subset of available channels.

The ordering of the scan may be based on the ordering of the channels inthe program guide, or the ordering of the scan may be dynamicallydetermined. For example, the scan sequence may be based on the contentthe user is currently viewing, the user viewing history, userpreferences, other user account information (e.g., genre, program,subject matter, content and/or channel likes and/or dislikes, userspecifications of channels to be blocked, user reminder instructions,user bookmarks, etc.), etc.

For example, depending on the configuration of the scan mode, if theuser is currently viewing a sports channel when activating the scancontrol, the scan mode may only scan through other sports channels. Byway of further example, depending on the configuration of the scan mode,if the user is currently viewing a sports channel when activating thescan control, the scan mode may first scan through other sportschannels, and then scan through non-sports channels.

Optionally, a user interface is provided via which the user may specifyone or more specific scan sequences, which may be associated withrespective scan controls. The user interface may include a field viawhich the user can enter a scan sequence name, which may then bepresented in association with the respective scan controls. Thus, forexample, a user may define a sports channel scan sequence, a comedychannel scan sequence, a music channel scan sequence, a reality showscan sequence, etc. A menu of respective scan controls may be presentedvia which the user can select the desired scan sequence. In response tothe user selection, the content player will then scan through theselected channel sequence.

Optionally, a recommendation control is provided, which when activatedby the user, causes the system to generate and/or display program and/orchannel recommendations. The recommendations may be based at least inpart on one or more of the following: user account information (e.g.,genre, program, subject matter, content and/or channel likes and/ordislikes, user specifications of channels to be blocked, user reminderinstructions, user bookmarks, etc.), user viewing history, usernavigation behavior, etc.

As further illustrated in FIG. 2A, a chat control is optionally providedwhich enables a user to initiate a chat (e.g., a text chat) with others.Optionally, a chat user interface is provided (e.g., in response to theuser activating the chat control) displaying names and/or images of thecertain of the user's friends, as illustrated in FIG. 2C. The names orimages of the user's friends may be accessed from a social networkingsite or may be provided directly by the user (e.g., via an “add afriend” interface). The chat user interface may indicate which of theuser's friends are online, and which of the user's friends are currentlyviewing the same program as the user. FIG. 2D illustrates a chat sessionwhich may take place while the various chatters are viewing a program(e.g., a scheduled program on a channel, so that the chat session issynchronized with the episode). Optionally, the user interface mayaccess video and audio content from a webcam and a microphone to enableusers to chat via a video and/or audio conference. The webcam may alsobe positioned and used to enable a user's friends watch the userwatching a given program.

The user can invite others to watch a current or future program via thechat user interface or optionally via a direct invitation userinterface. For example, the user can activate an invitation control, andan invitation will be sent to a friend (or other user) specified by theuser. The invitation may identify the program title, channel, and/or theprogram date/time. Optionally, the invitation may include preexistinginvitation template text and dynamic text identifying the program andchannel the user is watching, such as “I am watching ‘Cats havingdinner’ on Channel 302. Please watch along with me” or “I will bewatching ‘Cats having dinner’ on Channel 302 on Friday, December 26.Please watch along with me” (the underlined text indicates the dynamictext). The dynamic text may be determined by detecting what program theuser is watching and determining which channel it is on. The dynamictext may then be inserted into the invitation. The invitation may besent in real time. Optionally, the chat user interface may also provideaccess to a public chat room, as illustrated in FIG. 2E.

Controls to a real or simulated digital video or other content recorder(DVR) may be provided for display on a user terminal in association witha video or other content player. Optionally, the DVR may be a modulehosted by the system 102 or hosted by the user's terminal andimplemented in part using software in communication with the softwareproviding the program guide. An example DVR set of controls isillustrated in FIGS. 2C and 2J. As will be described, optionally the DVRmay be used to “record” a program, view a recorded program (e.g., from alibrary specific to a user or from a shared library), pause and rewind alive program, share a program currently being watched, and/or sharebookmarks. In this example, a pause/play control, a rewind control, afast forward control, and a scrubber control are provided. For example,the user may instruct, via a record control provided by the programguide user interface, that a show be recorded for later playback. A DVRuser interface may also provide a listing/library of recorded programs(which may be virtually recorded programs), from which the user mayselect for playback. The DVR function may enable the user to rewind orfast forward through a recorded or currently playing program usingcorresponding rewind and fast forward controls.

Optionally, an actual DVR is not used. Rather, the interface simulatesthe functionality of a DVR. Thus, for example, although the DVR controlset enables the user to pause, rewind and fast forward through aprogram, a copy of the program is not stored on the user terminal or onthe content scheduling system. Instead, the DVR control set iscontrolling playback of media being streamed from the third partycontent sources. Thus, for example, if a user provides a “record”instruction while watching the program, no actual content is recorded inresponse. Instead, a bookmark may be stored (e.g., on the user terminalor on the content scheduling system) indicating at what point in theprogram the user activated the record program. When the user lateraccesses the “recorded” program, the system access the stored bookmark,determines at what time point the user activated the bookmark, andcauses playback of the corresponding clip (and hence program thatincluded the clip), accessed from the third party content site, to beginat the bookmarked location. Thus, advantageously, storage space on theuser terminal or content scheduling is not wastefully occupied storingthe content from the third party content site.

Optionally, the user may associate several bookmarks with a program,where each bookmark is associated with a different time/point in theprogram. The program guide may include a listing control, which whenactivated by the user, causes a listing of the bookmarks/recordings tobe generated and displayed to the user. The listing may display some orall of the following: a frame from the program corresponding to thelocation of the bookmark, the name of the program, the program channel,and the date/time the user created the bookmark. The user can thenselect a given bookmark or “recording” for playback, and thecorresponding program will then be played back at the bookmarked point.

A user's bookmarks and library may be associated with the user's accountand optionally may not be accessible to other users. Optionally, theuser can select to share some or all of the user's bookmarks or libraryof programs with one or more other users. For example, the user mayshare bookmarks for a particular program, a set or sets of programs, achannel or set of channels. The recipient(s) of the bookmarks (orlibrary) may be notified that the user is sharing the bookmarks (orlibrary) with the recipient and may view a similar generated bookmarklisting. Optionally, a bookmark (or access to a bookmark via a link orotherwise) may be included in an invitation from the user (such as theinvitations discussed elsewhere herein) to one or more other users towatch the program (e.g., beginning at the bookmarked location). Thus,the system enables the user to engage in the viewing of the programstarting at a bookmarked location with other remote users with whom theuser shared the bookmark with. Optionally, the library and/or bookmarksmay be shared across a variety of different platform types (e.g., tabletcomputers, smart phones, desktop computers, networked televisions, etc.)or only one or more user and/or system selected platform types.

In addition, the DVR (the virtual or non-virtual DVR) may be used tonavigate through a program being viewed by the user in accordance withits scheduled display. That is, the DVR enables the user to rewind,pause, and fast forward through a “live” program. Optionally, the DVRprevents that user from fast forwarding through a program past itcurrent “live” point. Optionally instead, the DVR may enable the user tofast forward through a program past it current “live” point. Of course,if the program is an actual live program (e.g., a live sporting event),the user is prevented from fast forwarding through the program past thecurrent actual live point in the program.

Because a given program may be composed of multiple clips being streamedfrom different sources, which are then logical and visually stitchedtogether (to provide a seamless viewing experience to a viewer),rewinding or fast forwarding through a given program may cause clipboundaries to be traversed. Because certain clips may be from differentsources, the system determines if the rewind (or fast forward)instruction will cause a clip boundary to be traversed, and if so, willdetermine which other clip should be streamed to the user video playerbased on the amount of rewinding or fast forwarding. The system willthen cause the appropriate clip from the appropriate source to bestreamed to the user video player from the appropriate point in theclip. It is understood, that a user may rewind or fast forward through aprogram using dedicated rewind and fast forward controls, a scrubber, orotherwise. An example DVR user interface is discussed below with respectto FIGS. 2J and 2K.

Optionally a library add control (e.g., a button) may be provided onthird party pages (e.g., website pages) or via a browser plug in thatenables a user to add a video on the third party page to the user'sindividual library (e.g., the user's DVR library for access via the DVRor otherwise). For example, when the user activates the library addcontrol, code associated with the library add control detects theactivation and transmits corresponding video locator information (orlocator information for other content, such as image content, socialstreams, microblogs, text messages, etc.), to the user's library (whichmay be hosted on the user's terminal and/or the system). For example,the locator information may comprises a URL and/or an internal code ofthe third party that points to the video (or other content) specificallyseparately from the page as a whole, so that when the video is lateraccessed by the user, only the video, and not the surrounding page, isdisplayed in the user's video player. Thus, for example, if the usercomes across a video on a news channel website, but does not have timeto view the video, the user can “save” the video to the user's libraryfor later playback by activating the library add control. Optionally,the video may be added to a specific private or public playlist orchannel, such as a user defined channel of videos that the user hassaved but not yet viewed.

If the user clicks on a program listed in the program guide that has notyet begun, a reminder control is presented (e.g., in a pop-up window orotherwise), an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 2F (the “notifyme” control). If the user activates the reminder control, the reminderuser interface illustrated in FIG. 2G is presented. The user can providean instruction that a reminder be transmitted to the user preset amountof time or a user-specified amount before the beginning of the program.Optionally, the user can specify, via a user account specification, viaa control in the pop-up window, via a menu selection, or otherwise, howthe reminder is to be provided.

For example, the user can specify that the reminder is to be providedvia an audible alert or visual on the user's terminal, via an SMS/MMSmessage transmitted to a user mobile device, via an email, via anautomated phone call, via an entry on the user's calendar (which willcause the calendar to provide an audible and/or visual reminder), and/orotherwise. By way of illustration, the user can specify that thereminder is to be provided at the program start time, 1 minute beforethe program start time, 15 minutes before the program start time, 1 hourbefore the program start time, or other amount of time before theprogram start time. The system or app will store the reminderinstructions and provide reminders to the user accordingly. Asillustrated in FIG. 2G, the reminder user interface may also include aninterface via which the user can invite another person to watch theupcoming program at the same time. In the example illustrated in FIG.2G, a field is provided via which the user can indicate (e.g., byentering an email address or SMS address of the invitee) to whom theinvitation is to be provided. The invitee will then be provided with areminder at about the same time the user is provided the reminder (e.g.,via email, SMS, or otherwise).

Optionally, the program guide user interface can be navigated using aremote control. For example, the remote control may be in the form of amobile device, such as a mobile phone with a touch screen or a touchtablet, which has a remote control application (or other applicationincluding a remote control module, such as a program guide applicationincluding a remote control module) downloaded to and installed thereon.The remote control may be configured to directly communicate with theuser interface application hosted on the user's terminal via a localwireless communication protocol, such as Bluetooth, or via a local areawireless network, such as a Wi-Fi network, or otherwise. Optionally, inorder to enable the remote control to be synchronized with the programguide presented in a browser on the user terminal, the user selects async control presented via the remote control application (e.g., thephone app). The application then prompts the user to enter in the remotesync code generated by the web app executed by the user browser, asillustrated in FIG. 2H. Once the user enters the code into a fieldpresented by the application, the application becomes a remote controlfor the web app. For example, the application may present a version ofthe program guide formatted for the remote control application host(e.g., a smart phone or tablet display), as illustrated in FIG. 2I. Whenthe user selects a given channel or program on the program guideprovided via the remote control, that same channel or program will beselected in the web app on the user terminal. Thus, the user inputs onthe remote control may be functionally mirrored on the user terminal.Similarly and optionally, when the user selects a given channel orprogram via the web app, that same channel or program will be selectedon the remote control.

FIGS. 2J and 2K further illustrate the example DVR user interface, wherethe user has dragged the cursor in the scrubber back to rewind thecurrent program, and the current rewind position of the scrubber cursoris displayed (e.g., in terms of the time of day that portion wasoriginally played). A live control is provided, which when activated,causes the DVR to return a “live” program to the current “live” position(the current point in the program that is being played in accordancewith the program guide schedule).

Optionally, a parental control is provided via which the user canprevent channels and/or programs having an unacceptable rating (e.g., arating above G or PG, or other than a PG rating) from being presentedunless an override input is entered (e.g., a PIN code). Anadministrating user (e.g., a parent) may specify an override code via auser interface accessible via the program guide (see, e.g., the exampleillustrated in FIG. 2L). The system will record the override codespecified by the user. If someone attempts to access, via the user'saccount, a program that exceeds the permitted rating, such access isdetected by the application or system, and in response the userinterface provides a visual and/or an audible notification that theprogram rating exceeds the parental control threshold and prompts theuser to enter the override code. If the user enters the correct overridecode, as verified by the system or application, then the program will bedisplayed via the user interface. If the user fails to enter the correctoverride code, then the program will not be displayed.

Example backend user interfaces will now be discussed that enable acontent programmer to program channels and programs. FIG. 3A illustratesan example user interface including a search field via which the usercan enter search queries to search for channels or clips. The searchqueries may be routed to one or more content hosting sites and/or acontent repository or index maintained by the content scheduling system.The search results may then be presented to the user. The search resultsmay be aggregated if they included results from more than one source.The operator can add new channels to a channel lineup by activating a“new channel” control, and can add a new video clip or other content toa program by activating a “new clip” control.

Optionally, the index of content may be made available to third parties(e.g., over a network) via an application programming interface (API).The third parties may access and use the index to identify and locatecontent from one or more sources that meet one or more filter conditionsspecified by the third party (where a filter condition may relate tocontent metadata). For example, the content index may include contentlocators (e.g., URLs for Internet content), unique content identifiers,and/or metadata extracted and optionally normalized (e.g., into aninteroperable standard data format) from one or more content sources(e.g., video, music, image, social media, microblogs, and/or otherhosting sites or data stores). By way of further example, the contentmetadata may include length information. By way of yet further example,the content metadata may identify notable individuals associated with anitem of content (e.g., names of writers, actors, directors, producers,artists, performers, etc., in association with their respectivetitles/job functions), content title, content subject matter/topic,content classification (e.g., video, music, blog, etc.), instrumentsplayed (e.g., for music content), other metadata discussed herein, etc.Metadata may have been obtained via the content source, via an analysisof the content (e.g., by processing the content to identify actors,music, subject matter, etc.), and/or from other databases (e.g., otherdatabases that store and provide access to content metadata).

Thus, for example, a third party may specify via an interface a length,subject matter, and category, for desired content, and a search enginewill locate and return, via the API, search results identifyingcorresponding content and/or some or all of the associated metadata. Thethird parties may utilize the metadata and identified content toconstruct their own electronic program guides, their own programs,and/or channels, or may use the identified content and metadata forother purposes.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a user interface enabling a programmerto edit content programming. For example, the user interface enables aprogrammer to add channels to a channel lineup (e.g., by activating a“new channel” control) or delete channels from a channel lineup byactivating a delete control associated with a given channel. Themodifications are stored and reflected within the channel lineup andprogram schedule by the system. The changes reflected in the channellineup are presented by the system to the programmer.

FIG. 3C1 illustrates an example user interface presenting lists ofprograms for a selected channel (“Top 40” in this example) generated bythe system. The system categorizes, organizes, and presents the programsas groups based at least in part on the program status, such as “OnAir”, meaning the program is scheduled to be aired, “In Progress,”meaning the program is still being edited and is not yet complete,“Completed”, meaning the program is ready (per programmer guidelines)and is ready to be scheduled into the program tool, and “Archived”meaning the programs have been aired or assembled but not aired, but arenot currently scheduled to be aired. The aired/airing dates and times,and program lengths for each program may be provided for display aswell. Corresponding delete controls are provided for deleting a givenprogram. An “add” control is provided to enable the programmer toduplicate an existing program and then manipulate/edit into a newprogram. When the system detects that the user has activated the “add”control, the system makes a copy of the corresponding program (or thedata used to assemble the clips into the program). The user may thenactivate an “edit” control provided by the user interface via which theuser can edit the program details including the name, description and/orpublished state. FIG. 3C2 a user interface similar to that of FIG. 3C1.In this example, the system organizes the list so that programs that arein progress are grouped together and programs that are on air aregrouped together. In this example, the program title, aired date/time,and duration may be listed. Add, edit, and delete controls are providedand may be used as similarly discussed above with respect to FIG. 3C1.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example user interface presenting a list ofclips, including the name of the clip, the source or provider of theclip, author (content creator that uploaded clip), a locator (e.g., aURL or other link) for the clip, and the clip run time. Certaininformation, such as the name of the clips and the clip length may beobtained from metadata associated with the clips. Controls are providedfor deleting a given clip and for obtaining additional informationregarding the clip. The programmer may instruct the system to filter orsort the clip list. For example, the user can instruct the system tofilter the list to only display published or unpublished clips. Ashuffle control is provided which, when activated, instructs the systemto reorganize order of clip playback (e.g., randomly or otherwise). The“in progress” indication denotes that the corresponding program is notyet complete, and enables the curator/programmer to organize incompleteprograms that are in progress. A field is provided for receiving searchqueries for searching for additional clips. The search queries may berouted to one or more content hosting sites and/or a content repositoryor index maintained by the content scheduling system. The search resultsidentifying the matching clips may then be presented to the user. Thesearch results may be aggregated if they included results from more thanone source.

Referring again to the example illustrated in FIG. 3D, an import controlis provided. The import control enables the programmer to import a clipor to import a list of clips (or links/locator thereto, such as a URL orother locator) into the program at once. A user may enter one or moreclip locators (e.g., a URL) into a corresponding field, and the systemwill import the corresponding clip(s).

FIG. 3E illustrates an example program scheduler user interface for achannel. The programmer can instruct the program scheduler userinterface to display the schedule for a selected week or day, and inresponse, the program scheduler user interface will display the scheduleaccordingly. In this example, the schedule for a week is arranged anddisplayed in a grid format, where time of day is listed on the Y axis,and the day is listed on the X axis. The programs scheduled for eachtime period of each day are displayed in the grid, wherein a givenprogram entry includes the time period the program will be displayed,the name of the program, and the week the program will be displayed. Inthis example, the schedule has not yet been published to be accessed andviewed by the general user public. The programmer can activate the“publish” control and the corresponding program guide will be publishedand made accessible to the general user public by the system. A list ofthe names of unique programs/episodes included in the grid are listed ina table on the left, including the program length. Thus, the userinterface enables the programmer to quickly determine how many uniqueprograms are scheduled for the displayed week or day without having tomanually identify and count the unique programs. The user interfaceoptionally enables the programmer to manually drag and drop completedprograms from the left navigation into the schedule (e.g., the weeklyschedule), providing an optional mechanism to override an automaticprogram schedule.

Example content programmer user interfaces will now be discussed. FIG.4A illustrates an example user interface via which the programmer canenter locators for one or more clips (or locators for other content,optionally including real-time generated content, such as a streamingmicroblog) to be imported. It is understood that the term real-timeincludes substantially real-time (e.g., in less than 0.5 seconds, inless than 1 second, in less than 2 seconds, etc.) unless the contextindicates otherwise. FIG. 4B illustrates a report generated by thesystem indicating which locators entered via the user interface of FIG.4A are not usable (e.g., are not embeddable by the system in the programguide). The list of “bad” clip locators may include, for eachcorresponding clip, some or all of the following: a thumbnail for theclip, the clip title, a clip description, the number of clip views, theclip duration, and the date the clip was posted, in addition to some orall of the metadata associated to the original clip. A control isprovided via which the operator can remove the “bad” locators/clips (orbad locators for other content). FIG. 4C illustrates an example clipassignment user interface via which the programmer can assign a givenclip to an associated category, channel, program, or playlist. Thesystem will then store the assignment.

FIG. 4D illustrates an example task/notification interface. Theinterface may provide system messages (e.g., system up/down times,maintenance schedules, etc.), other notifications, and a listing ofuncompleted tasks assigned to the programmer, as tracked by the system.FIG. 4E illustrates an example notification user interface. Thenotification may identify a corresponding channel, program name, episodenumber, status/issue (e.g., broken link), and the status date. If, forexample, there is a broken link identified, the programmer can click onthe corresponding entry, and the system will be present thecorresponding playlist, via which the user can fix/replace the brokenlink.

FIG. 4F illustrates example user interfaces via which a programmer candefine a program and can create a new episode within a program series,and can view the last air dates for episodes. The program informationuser interface enables the programmer to enter, edit, and/or view suchinformation as “title,” “program description,” “category,” “genres”,and/or “supplier.” The programmer can instruct the system to save theinformation by activating a save control. The programmer can alsonavigate to a series information user interface. The series informationuser interface enables the programmer to enter, edit, and/or view suchinformation as “series title,” “episodes title”, “duration”, seasonnumber and episode number, last air/broadcast date of the episode, andpremier date (the date the episode was first aired/broadcast). Theprogrammer can select a given episode (e.g., by clicking on an episodeentry), and the system will open up the program information userinterface.

FIG. 4G illustrates an example user interface of a scheduling tool thatenables a programmer to program a channel. A “select channel” interfaceenables the programmer to select (e.g., via a menu or in search results)a channel to be programmed. Once the channel is selected various otherfields may be populated by the system with the relevant programminginformation (retrieved from memory) for the selected channel. Fields areprovided via which the programmer can enter search terms, select/entermetadata, select/enter a category, and/or select/enter a genre. Thesystem will identify corresponding programs (optionally including theprogram title and duration) from which the programmer can select to addto the selected channel.

For example, the programmer can drag a given program identifier to acalendar user interface (which lists days and time for specifyingbroadcast dates and times) and drop the program identifier at a desiredmonth, week, day, and time for the selected channel. The examplecalendar user interface includes navigation controls enabling the userto navigate to a desired month, week, and/or year. If the identifiedprogram is a series with multiple episodes, optionally dragging anddropping the program name will cause the latest/newest episode to beadded to the calendar at the specified date/time. Optionally, multipleor all of the episodes for the selected program are listed (optionally,including the episode title, number, version, and last air date) in anepisode user interface, and the programmer can drag and drop whicheverepisode the programmer wishes to add to the calendar. The system maytrack, update and display calendar status information, such as thedate/time the calendar was last modified, who last modified thecalendar, last sync (with a live calendar for consumer viewing)date/time and by who, the calendar status (e.g., draft, finalized,etc.), etc. The system may synchronize the updated calendar with thelive calendar in response to detection a sync command from an authorizedprogrammer.

It is understood that the programs which may be added by a contentprogrammer to a channel or schedule are not limited to prerecordedprograms. The programming tool can be used to select and add an upcominglive program (e.g., a concert, sporting event, awards show, interview,etc.) to a schedule for a channel. For example, the live program may bestreamed from a third party content site. The programming tool mayinspect and check the programming to ensure that the programmer did notschedule the live event to be played at a date/time that is prior to theoccurrence of the live event. If the programming tool determines thatthe programmer has attempted to schedule a live event to be playedbefore the occurrence of the live event (e.g., as determined bycomparing scheduling day/time metadata accessed from the third partycontent site with that of the programming calendar), the programmingtool may notify the programmer of the error and optionally prevent theprogrammer from scheduling the live program at such a prematuredate/time. Thus, optionally, a given channel may include prerecorded andlive streamed programs/clips (or other content, such as image content,social streams, blogs, text messages, etc.). Adding a live streamedevent to a channel may optionally be performed seamlessly, in a mannersimilar to that of recorded, non-live, content.

An auto-program user interface corresponds to an auto-program function.The programmer can define certain criteria for the auto-programming ofprograms by entering or selecting, via respective fields, an endingdate, a duration (e.g., in days, weeks, or months), and the number ofoccurrences. The auto-program function takes a selection (single ormultiple programming blocks) and receives the date, duration, or numberof occurrences in which to automatically program the selection into thefuture. Optionally, in order to use the auto-program function, theprogramming pattern (e.g., day(s) of the week, refresh cycle (daily,weekly, bi-monthly, monthly)) needs to be pre-defined at the programlevel. The auto-program function will automatically program theprogram/episodes in accordance with the programmer's definition, therebyreducing the effort and time needed to perform a repetitive programmingprocess.

A duplicate selection user interface corresponds to a duplicateselection function. The programmer can define certain criteria for theprogramming of programs by entering or selecting, via respective fields,a start date, a repeat definition (e.g., repeat every Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday), duration (e.g.,in days, weeks, or months), and the number of occurrences. The duplicateselection function takes a selection (single or multiple programmingblocks) and receives the definition in which to automatically programthe selection into the future. The duplicate selection may be used wherethe programming pattern is not pre-defined at the program level. Theduplicate selection function will automatically program theprogram/episodes in accordance with the programmer's definition, therebyreducing the effort and time needed to perform a repetitive programmingprocess.

A check schedule user interface corresponds to a check schedulefunction. The check schedule function is configured to detect errors(e.g. unused space (e.g., a time range in the schedule where no contentis designated to be played), scheduling of a live event to be played ata time prior to the occurrence of the live event, removed or invalidatedclips (or other content), insufficient available advertising andpromotional space (in terms of time), incomplete metadata (e.g., missingthumbnails, titles, descriptions, length information, etc.), etc.) andto report the errors to the programmer before the programmersynchronizes their programming calendar to a live calendar for consumerviewing. The check schedule function report may include a list ofprogramming errors that need to be fixed and programming errors that maybe ignored auto-program function. The programmer can define start andend dates for the schedule check via the check schedule user interface.

Optionally, consumers may also be provided with access to some or allfeatures of the channel scheduling tool to enable users to program theirown channels and to share their channels with other users. Optionally,one or more channels may be crowd sourced by multiple users. Thus, thebroader population may be provided with curating tools to letindependent users generate channels.

For example, the curating tools may enable an independent user to createa linear, scheduled experience out of on-demand content. For example, alibrary of different content may be provided via which the user canassemble a program or channel. By way of illustration, on-demand contentmay be categorized as to themes or subject matter (e.g., retro-comedy,reality clips, etc.). The independent user may select one or morecategories of content from the library, and select one or more items ofcontent from the categories of content to create a program or a set ofprograms. Optionally, the independent user may include content fromother sources as well. The independent user may define a channel usingthe programs (e.g., where the programs are scheduled to be shown atspecified times or according to a specified schedule), and the channelmay be made available to users at large (e.g., via an electronic programguide provided to other users that includes a listing for the usergenerated channel or program) or only to users identified by theindependent user that created the channel or that have a specifiedsocial networking relationship with the independent user.

FIG. 5A illustrates an example program generation user interface whichguides a user (e.g., an independent user who is not a professionalcontent programmer) through a program generation process. Theillustrated example user interface has specific fields and controls forthe assemblage of a music video program for a music channel to furtherease the program generation process for a music video program. Otherprogram-type specific user interfaces may be provided as well (e.g., a“Top 10 list” program definition user interface, a cooking programdefinition user interface, etc.).

In the example illustrated in FIG. 5A, a channel name field is providedvia which the user may enter a name for the user's channel. A playlistname field (where a playlist may correspond to a program) is providedvia which the user may enter a name for the current music video playlistbeing defined. An “add music videos” interface is provided via which theuser can specific or select a music video to add to the playlist. Forexample, the user may enter a song, artist, or album name, and a systemsearch engine will locate and present a listing of matching music videoswith associated play controls enabling the user to view play the musicvideos. The user may then select one or more of the matching musicvideos to add to the playlist. Optionally, the “add music videos”interface may be configured to receive a locator (e.g., a URL) for amusic video to be added to the playlist,

A playlist field displays the music videos currently included in theplaylist, including the name of the music video/song, the associatedrecord label, the play time, and the play ordering (1, 2, 3, etc.). Aplay control may be provided with respective playlist entries, whichwhen activated will cause the corresponding music video to be played. Adelete control may be provided in association with a given playlistentry which the user can activate in order to delete the playlist entryfrom the playlist. The current playlist running time may be calculatedand displayed. The playlist running time may be recalculated anddisplayed when additions or deletions are made to the playlist. Acontrol may be provided enabling the user to select cover art for agiven playlist entry and/or for the channel as a whole. The userplaylist definitions are received and stored by the system.

Optionally, a user interface may be provided that enables the user toinsert user generated content (e.g., video clips) between non-usergenerated content (e.g., between video content from this party videohosting sites). For example, the user generated content (e.g., where theuser records a video of the user acting as a program or channel host)may be used to introduce the next item of non-user generated content. Byway of illustration, if the user is defining a “top 10 list” programthat discusses 10 items of video content, the user interface may firstprompt the user to record (e.g., using a video recorder included in theuser terminal) an overall program introduction. The user interface maythen prompt the user to record an introduction to the video rated number10. The user interface may then prompt the user to record anintroduction to the video rated number 9, then 8, then 7, and so on.Thus, the user interface provides a template guiding the user throughthe program and channel creation process. The process may assemble achannel using a plurality of user-generated programs.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example program guide user interface including alisting for a user-generated program created using the user interfaceillustrated in FIG. 5A. The user generated playlist is included in thechannel guide (“Audra Gold Channel”), and some or all of the albumcovers may be displayed at a given time, where the album cover of thecurrently playing music video is emphasized (e.g., via a frame, color,size, or otherwise). Controls may be provided enabling the viewer toskip a music video or to otherwise navigate through the playlist.Optionally, the playlist may be played on-demand, rather than atspecifically scheduled times.

As noted above, the program lineup for a given channel may be manuallyselected by an operator or automatically selected by a channelgeneration module 150. For example, an operator may specify a theme fora channel. The operator may assign one or more tags to a channel, wherethe tags correspond to the channel theme. By way of illustration, if thetheme of the channel is to be cats, the operator may assign the tags“cat”, “feline”, and “kitten” to the channel. The operator may specifyfurther tags for a specific desired program/episode at a specific time.A given program may be made up of multiple clips (e.g., short videosand/or other content such as image content, social streams, microblogs,text messages, etc.) from one or more sources (e.g., the video hostingsites discussed above, social network streams, microblogs, etc.). Theoperator may also specify time lengths for programs, and the day and/ortime the corresponding program is to be shown. Optionally, the operatormay specify a desired time length, with minimum or acceptable maximumtime for the program and/or for clips (and/or other content) included inprogram. The operator may also specify (e.g., by providing a URL) one ormore sources for video content.

For example, the operator may want a program about cat tricks for a 6:00PM presentation. The operator may specify program tags “cat tricks”,“tricks”, “swimming cat”, “climbing”, etc. The operator may furtherspecify that the program is 30 minutes long, and each clip to beincluded in the program is to be preferably 2 minutes, but no shorterthan 1 minute long and no longer than 3 minutes long, and the program isto be displayed at 6:00 PM. The module may then search the specifiedvideo or other content sources for videos or other content with tagscorresponding to one or more of the tags specified by the user, that arepreferably 2 minutes long, and no shorter than 1 minute and no longerthan 3 minutes, where the total length of the videos are 30 minutes. Theoperator may optionally specify thresholds for numbers of views andviewer ratings the clips (or other content) are to have, as similarlydiscussed elsewhere herein. The operator can similarly specify multipleprograms for a given day or days, and the channel generation module willlocate corresponding clips.

The channel generation module 150 will then schedule the found clips (orother content) to be routed to users that have elected to view thecorresponding programs or channels via the program guide user interface.Optionally, the resulting program assembled by the channel generationmodule 150 may be presented by the system to an operator (e.g., acontent programmer) to ensure that the program, and the assembled clips(or other content) for the program, are suitable. The operator maychange the ordering of the clips (and/or other content), and may deleteclips and add clips or other content (e.g., accessed from a systemdatabase of clips or other content and/or by manually navigating to oneor more video sources or other content sources to identify and selectclips or other content).

As similarly discussed above, the content described herein may be in theform of video content, music content, still image content, socialstreams, text messages, etc., or any combination thereof. Thus, forexample, a programmer (or an end-user programming their own channel),may compose a program (e.g., an episode) or channel to include a mixtureof video clips, streaming microblogs, and social networking streams. Byway of illustration, a programmer may compose a channel program toinclude a 3 minute video clip of a pet doing tricks, followed by a 30second stream of a social network associated with the channel (which mayinclude substantially real-time user posts related to the video clip),followed by a 15 second stream of a microblog of a first specifiedperson (which may include substantially real-time posts from the firstperson related to the video clip), followed by a 2 minute clip of a petdoing tricks, followed by another 30 second stream of the social networkassociated with the channel, followed by a 15 second stream of amicroblog of a second specified person, followed by a 2 minutes of alive dog show, and so on. Thus, a program and/or channel may integratedifferent types of content/media (including live and recorded content)from different types of sources.

As similarly discussed above, programs and/or channels may beautomatically generated, and programs and/or channels. Further, sociallydriven real-time programming of channels may be provided. By way ofillustration, viewer input may be taken into account in generating aprogram or channel, in real-time. For example, a poll may be provided tousers (e.g., via the program guide, a pop-up prompt, a text message, orotherwise) during a clip, program, advertisement, or content transition,asking viewers what they would like to see next. When the poll is for anexisting channel, the poll may include choices related to the subjectmatter of the channel or program. By way of illustration, if the channelis for dog tricks, the poll may ask if they want to see a clip of avideo a dog performing a retrieving trick, a jumping trick, or acatching trick. Based at least in part on the votes, correspondingcontent may be selected (optionally in real time), and the selectedcontent may then be displayed next and/or at a later time.

Optionally, content (e.g., a video clip, image, etc.) for a channel orprogram, and/or the theme of a channel or program, may be selected orgenerated based, at least in part, on input from social network sources.For example, trending subjects may be identified on one or more socialnetwork sites, such as microblog sites, image posting sites, etc. Thetrends may be identified via metadata (e.g., keywords, key phrases,hashtags, subject descriptions etc.) associated with social networkdata, or from an analysis of the content itself. For example, the speedof posts (e.g., the number of posts per minute) and acceleration ofposts (e.g., the rate of increase or decrease of posts over a period oftime, such as the last hour) regarding a particular subject may bedetermined and used in selecting an item of content for a program, maybe used to select a title or a channel.

Rules may be defined which specify which social network data, in termsof content, source and/or time period, is to be used in determiningwhich content to select. For example, a rule may specify that videoclips from one or more specified sources having metadata correspondingto the top 10 Twitter hashtags over the last 24 hours are to be selectedfor a program. By way of further example, a rule may be definedspecifying that the 20 most popular video clips (in terms of views overthe last 7 days), from a specified video hosting website, having thephrase “cat trick” in the title, are to be identified, and that the top5 of those 20 video clips having the most views over the previous 24hours are to be selected to form a program.

Optionally, an automated process of selecting and/or generatingtransitions/interstitials between clips or programs may be utilized. Forexample, an interstitial may be in the form of text, video, and/or audiocontent that may be presented during (e.g., as a partial overlay) and/orafter a given item of primary content is being displayed (where primarycontent may be a programmed clip, such as a clip of a cat trick for acat trick program). The interstitial may be used to aid in tying orbridging clips into a program, or tying or bridging programs into achannel. The interstitial may provide information regarding an upcomingclip or program. The interstitial may optionally be selected based atleast in part on characteristics of a viewer (e.g., user preferences,user profile information, etc.). Rules may be defined to select aninterstitial.

An interstitial may include static content (e.g., static text) and/ordynamic content (e.g., dynamically selected text). By way ofillustration, static text may include the phrase “Coming up next”followed by dynamic text including the title or subject matter of theupcoming content (“the week's funniest cat videos”), optionally obtainedfrom metadata associated with the upcoming content.

By way of further example, the interstitial content may be selected thatcorresponds to the user's interests. By way of illustration, if it isdetermined that the next program is not of interest to the viewer (e.g.,by comparing preference information for the viewer that indicates theviewer's subject matter interests with metadata of the next program thatindicates the subject matter of the next program), but a program thatwill be displayed in two hours is of high interest to the viewer, thesystem may select a interstitial that discusses the program that will bedisplayed in two hours rather than the next program.

Optionally, as discussed above, the system may be configured togenerate, using artificial intelligence, a computer generated channel orprogram host. For example, the host characteristics may be selectedbased at least in part on user account information, user preferenceinformation (e.g., expressly provided and/or inferred user preferences),and/or metadata associated with program host. The computer generatedhost may be used to deliver interstitial content, examples of which arediscussed above.

Another challenge presented by creating channels and programs for clipsfrom different video sources (e.g., video websites) and/or for othercontent, is that the different video sources may provide custom videoplayers for videos hosted by a given source. For example, each source'svideo player may have a different appearing video player, with commoncontrols placed in different positions, and with some video playershaving different control sets than other video players. Conventionally,such inconsistent player user interfaces and functionality does not posemuch of a problem for users, as users typically are accessing videos ata single source during a given viewing session.

However, when users are viewing, via a single site, multiple videos aspart of a channel, they expect to have a unified viewing experience, andit would be confusing and disconcerting to be presented with a differentplayer for each program/video. To address this problem, certainembodiments provide a meta-player that integrates other video playersinto single experience and provides a common video player interface. Forexample, while the user is watching a channel, the meta-player may causea given program to be presented in a video presentation area. When thenext program comes on, it too is presented in the same videopresentation area, even though the native players may present the videosin differently positioned presentation areas. Further, the meta-playerplaces a common set of video player controls at the same locations andwith the same appearance, even though the native players may havedifferent control placements and different control appearances.

By way of example, the common controls may be defined to include some orall of the following: rewind, fast forward, play, pause, record,navigate to the next clip (or other content), like, share (which enablesa user to instruct that a notification regarding the program, optionallyincluding a link to the program, be sent to a designated recipient),etc. Optionally, if a given source player includes a control that is notincluded in the common control set, that non-common control is excludedfrom presentation to the user via the meta-player. Optionally instead,if a given source player includes a control that is not included in thecommon control set, that non-common control is presented to the user viathe meta-player in an area reserved for the display of non-commoncontrols.

In certain embodiments, the system determines what player is needed toplay a given video clip (e.g., based on the source of the clip/the URLto the clip), and then uses a program (e.g., implemented using aninterpreted client side script, such as JavaScript) to call theappropriate player, wrapped in the meta-player interface.

The video player may be configured to display programs from two or morechannels at a time in respective windows. For example, the windows maybe configured as picture-in-a-picture windows, as side by side windows,or as windows that the user may drag and drop to desired locations.

Thus, certain embodiments optionally provide seamless switching of videosources and players in a manner transparent to the user to therebyprovide the user with a unified experience when viewing content fromdifferent sources (e.g., within a program or a channel).

FIG. 6 illustrates an example architecture utilizing a unified player600 that provides a common wrapper for a plurality of third partycontent players 610 a-610 n. In this example, various native bridge APIs602 a-602 n are provided for various native environments (e.g., IOS®,ANDROID®, Web, CHROMECAST(r), etc., which may be hosted on mobiledevices, such as tablets, phones, laptops, etc., and/or on non-mobiledevices, such as networked televisions, desktop computers, gameconsoles, etc., and which may utilize different programming languages)to communicate with a unified player module (e.g., an HTML or HTMLhybrid content player application). The unified player 600 may includeAPIs 604 (optionally implemented in JavaScript) for common playerfunctions, such as, by way of example some or all of the following:play, pause, forward, fast forward, rewind, fast rewind, seek, load,etc. The player function APIs 604 may in turn communicate with playercontrol APIs 606 a-606 n (optionally implemented in JavaScript) forvarious content players 610 a-610 n (e.g., video players).

The content players 610 a-610 n may include chromeless content playersthat provide outside developers access to the standard player controls,and enable the outside developers to provide their own customized skinand/or additional features. Different content players may be configuredto play different types of formats of content (e.g., MPEG, MKV, AVI,FLV, etc.). Optionally, the original video host's advertisements,analytics, watermark, etc. are preserved with the content stream.

A given player controller API routes commands received from a user viathe native environment to the currently active content player. A stagemodule 608 ensures the appropriate content player is being used for thecontent (e.g., video clip) currently being played. By way ofillustration, a given program may include four video clips, each ofwhich utilizes a different content player. When the program is played,the stage module 610 a-610 n causes a first content player to play afirst item of content, a second content player to play a second item ofcontent, etc. However, to the user, it appears as if the same contentplayer, with the same controls in the same positions, is being used toplay each of the four video clips.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example process utilizing a unified contentplayer, which may be executed using a content scheduling system or othercomputing system. While the following description may refer a first anda second item of content and a first content player and a second contentplayer, there may be more than two items of content and two contentplayers. At block 1302, an electronic program guide is presented to auser, and the user selects a program to play (or the user is watching aprogram playing as a result of a previous selection of a channel ofwhich the program is a part). The user program (or channel) selection isdetected. The program in this example is composed of multiple contentitems (e.g., video clips) from different sources, where at least onecontent item is to be streamed from a first source and is to be playedback using a first content player (e.g., a first video player), at leastone content item is to be streamed from a second source and is to beplayed back using a second content player (e.g., a second video player).

At block 1304, metadata associated with the first content item isaccessed. Optionally, the metadata may be accessed from a local datastore (e.g., local content data store of content scheduling system 102).Optionally, the metadata is accessed from the first content item source.The metadata associated with the first content item may include some orall of the following data: an identification of what content player isto be used to play the first content item, an identifier identifying thefirst source, and/or a content item identifier (e.g., a uniquealphanumeric or other code) identifying the first content item.

At block 1306, the process determines, at least in part, from themetadata which content player is to be used to play the first contentitem. At block 1308, the process instructs a unified content player on auser terminal to access the first content player and to utilize thefirst content player to play the first content item from the firstcontent source. For example, the instructions may include the firstcontent player identifier, the first source identifier, and/or the firstcontent item identifier. Optionally, the instructions include a URLcorresponding to the first content item. The first content player may bepresented via a user browser and may be generated using code (e.g.,JavaScript) from the content scheduling system, the first contentsource, and/or other source. The first content player may be configuredso that the appearance conforms to a standardized uniform content playerappearance (e.g., with the controls in a certain location and with acertain appearance, which may be different than that of the firstcontent player in its native form).

At block 1310, a determination is made whether it is time for the nextcontent item (the second content item in this example) to be played bythe unified player. For example, the determination may be based on atimer or a trigger (e.g., metadata associated with the program) thatindicates that it is (or is about to be) time for the second contentitem to be played. If it is time for the second content item to beplayed, at block 1312 metadata associated with the second content itemis accessed (although the metadata may be accessed earlier, such as atthe beginning of the program). Optionally, the metadata may be accessedfrom a local data store (e.g., local content data store of contentscheduling system 102). Optionally, the metadata is accessed from thesecond content item source. The metadata associated with the secondcontent item may include some or all of the following data: anidentification of what content player is to be used to play the secondcontent item, an identifier identifying the second source, and/or acontent item identifier (e.g., a unique alphanumeric or other code)identifying the second content item.

At block 1314, the process determines, at least in part, from themetadata which content player is to be used to play the second contentitem. At block 1316, the process instructs a unified content player on auser terminal to access the second content player and to utilize thesecond content player to play the second content item from the secondcontent source. For example, the instructions may include the secondcontent player identifier, the second source identifier, and/or thesecond content item identifier. Optionally, the instructions include aURL corresponding to the second content item. The second content playermay be presented via a user browser and may be generated using code(e.g., JavaScript) from the content scheduling system, the secondcontent source, and/or other source. The second content player may beconfigured so that the appearance conforms to a standardized uniformcontent player appearance (e.g., with the controls in a certain locationand with a certain appearance, which may be different than that of thesecond content player in its native form), so that the second contentplayer and the first content player appear the same to the user, and theswitching of content players is transparent to the user (e.g., the useris unaware that different content players are being used to play contentfrom different sources). The process may then repeat for the nextcontent item, and so on.

It is understood that other activities may be performed by the unifiedcontent player during playback of a content item. For example, theunified content player may report (e.g., to the content schedulingsystem or other system) the current playback position of the contentitem being played, buffering delays, and/or other information.

Another challenge posed by the process of composing a program using oneor more clips from third party content hosting sources over which thesystem operator has no control, is that a given clip may be deleted atany time (e.g., by the third party hosting site, by the posting user, orotherwise). For example, a content hosting source may delete a videoclip because of an alleged copyright violation, because of viewercomplaints regarding the video clip, or for other reasons. Thus, when aclip is scheduled to be displayed to users as part of a program, theclip may be no longer be available, and an error condition may occur orthere may be a dead space within the corresponding program (or if theprogram is composed of a single clip, the whole program may be “dead”).

In order to address this problem, optionally certain embodimentsidentify backup content (e.g., video content or other content) to besubstituted for removed or other unavailable video content that had beenincluded in a program. In an example embodiment, before a given programis scheduled to air, the system may determine whether or not the clip isstill available. For example, the system may issue a query to thehosting site via an API regarding the availability of the clip, and thehosting system will then provide a response received by the system, theresponse indicating whether or not the clip is still available (or mayprovide no response, which may indicate that the clip is no longeravailable). By way of illustration, the system may be scheduled toperform the availability check 30 minutes before the program airs, 12hours before the program airs, one day before the program airs, or othertime period before the program airs.

If the system determines that the clip is not available, the system mayidentify a substitute clip from a pool of clips or from one or moreother sources (optionally including a pool of clips stored andmaintained by the content scheduling system). By way of example, a poolof substitute clips (or other content) may have already been manually orautomatically identified for the specific program (e.g., a dedicatedprogram pool). The system may then select the substitute clip (or othercontent) from the program pool based at least in part on the similarlyto the length (in time) of the no longer available clip. For example, ifthe currently unavailable clip is 2 minutes in length, the system mayidentify a clip from the pool that is 2 minutes or less in length. Byway of further example, the system may identify a clip between 1 minuteand 45 seconds and 2 minutes and 15 seconds long.

Thus, optionally, the system may select substitute content that islonger than the time period of the unavailable content, and may truncatethe excess content corresponding to the time that exceeds that of theunavailable content. Optionally, if the system selects substitutecontent that is longer than that of the unavailable content, the systemmay delete other content from the program to compensate (e.g., thesystem may delete previously included promotional/advertising contentfor other programs). Optionally instead, the system may selectsubstitute content that is no longer than the time period of theunavailable content.

Optionally, rather than using a dedicated program pool of substitutebackup clips, the system may search for and select substitute clips froma broader pool (e.g., a pool specific to a given channel) or from thirdparty content hosting sites. For example, the substitute clip may beselected by the system based on its similarity (e.g., as determined bycomparing tags) to the currently unavailable clip and on the cliplength. By way of illustration, if the currently unavailable clip has atag of “cat tricks” and is 5 minutes in length, the system may identifya substitute clip that also has the tag “cat tricks” or a functionalsynonym for “cat tricks” (e.g., “cat stunts”), and that is about 5minutes in length.

Optionally, rather than using a substitute clip to replace a video clip,live content (or other content type) may be specified, such as amicroblog or social network stream.

Optionally, the currently unavailable clip may be substituted using twoor more clips (or other content, which may include live content and/orrecorded content) that combined have about the same length as thecurrently unavailable clip. A packing algorithm may be used to selectmultiple clips (or other content) to replace a given currentlyunavailable clip. The system may select a combination of substitutecontent, where each item of content of the combination is shorter thanthe unavailable content, but the combined length of the combination islonger than the time period of the unavailable content. The system maytruncate the excess content from one of the items of the combination ofsubstitute content (e.g., the last item of content) corresponding to thetime that exceeds that of the unavailable content. Optionally instead,the system may select a combination of content having a length that isno longer than the time period of the unavailable content. Optionally,if the length is shorter than the time period of the unavailablecontent, fill-in content may be selected and used to fill-in the timeperiod.

Yet another challenge posed by composing a program using one or moreclips (or other content) from sources over which the system operator hasno control, is that a given clip may actually vary in length. Forexample, a given clip may include a lead-in video (or post-roll)commercial when initially identified and selected for a given program,and so the clip (including the commercial) will have a first length. Thelead-in clip may be dynamically selected by an advertisement server atthe time the clip is requested. Thus, different advertisements ofdifferent lengths may be selected based on when the clip is requestedand/or based on the location of the requester. Therefore, the given clipmay include a different video commercial of a different length than thevideo commercial that was streamed as a lead-in commercial when the clipwas originally selected, (or the clip, when originally selected, may nothave included any lead-in video commercial), and hence the total lengthof the clip (including the lead-in advertisement) may change.

In order to address this problem and to ensure that the lengths of clipsare synchronized with the scheduled program end time, certainembodiments schedule a longer time for a given clip/item of content (orfor the program in which the given clip is to be included) than theactual length of the clip when initially selected for the program. Theselected scheduled length may be configured to accommodate the maximumanticipated potential increase in clip length. For example, typicallylead-in advertisements are 1 minute or less, and so the system mayschedule an additional minute for the clip, or may schedule anadditional 2 minutes to even better ensure that the total clip time(including the lead-in, post-roll, or other advertisement) will notexceed the scheduled time for the clip.

Then, when the clip is about to be (e.g., within 1 second, within 15seconds, within 30 seconds) or is played as part of the program, thesystem may examine the clip (e.g., the clip metadata that indicates theadvertisement length and/or the clip length) to determine the currenttotal clip length (including the advertisement from the advertisementserver) of the about-to-be played clip. For example, the system may usean API to access the clip length without the advertisement from thecontent hosting system. If the total clip length is shorter than theamount of time scheduled for the clip (or for multiple clips in a givenprogram), the system may select other content to fill out the time. Thefill-in content may be selected based on its length and optionally basedon its relevancy to the program. If the system determines that the clipis shorter than the allocated time, the system may identify fill-incontent, which may be in the form of one or more video clips orstill/static images.

Optionally, the system may select fill-in content that is longer thanthe time period that needs to be filled in, and will truncate the excesscontent corresponding to the time that exceeds the period that needs tobe filled in. Optionally, if the system selects fill-in content that islonger than the time period that needs to be filled in, the system maydelete other content from the program to compensate (e.g., the systemmay delete previously included promotional/advertising content for otherprograms). The fill-in content may correspond to the subject matter ofthe program, may be promotional content for other programs, or may beadvertisement content for one or more products or services. Optionally,the fill-in content may be retrieved from a pool of clips maintained bythe system or from one or more other sources. By way of example, a poolof fill-in clips may have been manually or automatically identified forthe specific program (e.g., a dedicated program pool). The system maythen select the fill-in clip from the program pool based at least inpart on the similarity to the length (in time) of the clip underrun.

Optionally, certain channels may be provided to, and accessed by usersfor free. Optionally, certain channels may be paid subscriptionchannels, where the system will prevent access to the channels by usersthat the system determines has not subscribed to those channels.Optionally, bundled subscription packages may be provided where programsand/or channels are bundled by subject (e.g., any available showsregarding a specified sports team), theme (e.g., travel, music, etc.),event (a live concert, a sporting event, etc.), etc., and users maysubscribe to one or more bundles. Optionally, certain programs/channelsmay be on a pay per view basis, where the system informs the user thatthe user needs to pay a fee to access a given program, or to access achannel for a specified period of time.

Optionally, the system may access (e.g., via an API) programminginformation from other broadcasters (e.g., cable and/or over-the-airbroadcasters that also provide content to computers, mobile devices,etc. or that otherwise provide access to their content), and may add theprogramming information (e.g., name of program, air date/time, etc.) tothe programming guide discussed above. Thus, the program guide mayprovide an integrated program guide including information for multiplebroadcasters (e.g., online video content sources, over-the-airbroadcasters, cable broadcasters, etc.). Optionally, the program guideenables the user to select and view channels and content from suchbroadcasters. Optionally, a user interface is provided via which theuser can provide log-in information for the user's account(s) with theother broadcaster(s) that require or ask for such log-in in informationorder to access their content. The system may then utilize such log-ininformation from the user (e.g., user ID, password, etc.), to verifythat the user is authorized to access such broadcaster content and/orthe system forwards the login information to the broadcaster forverification and authorization.

Optionally, one or more channels may be embedded on and streamed to oneor more third party sites (e.g., websites). For example, a blog abouthip-hop music may embed a hip-hop music channel for viewing by itsaudience. Optionally, the channel may be presented with links to thesite hosted by the system. Optionally, a company may utilize the systemto generate a channel or program for a company brand. For example, ifthe company manufacturers or sells sports footwear, the system may beutilized to generate programs and/or channels of content related to ordepicting footwear with the company brand. The content for the programof channel may be hand-selected by the company or the content may beautomatically identified and/or assembled into a program or channel assimilarly discussed elsewhere herein. The company channel may beaccessed via a company website, a website hosted by the system, and/or athird party content hosting website. Optionally, a given channel orprogram may be syndicated across a plurality of platforms anddistribution points (e.g., to other linear platforms, to cable orsatellite set-top boxes, etc.). For example, an interface (e.g.,provided via a software developer kit) may be provided enabling apublisher to create a channel (e.g., as discussed elsewhere herein) andspecify how and to where the channel is to be broadcast (e.g., over theair, over the internet, via cable, etc.).

Optionally, content may utilize IP and/or wireless multicast streaming(e.g., to reduce network bandwidth usage), where a given stream may beaccessed by multiple destinations, rather than only using one-to-oneunicast streaming. For example, in multicast streaming, a multicasttransmission may transmit IP packets to a group of destination terminalson a network. A destination node (e.g., a user terminal) may send to thesystem a join message when joining a multicast streaming transmissionand may send a leave messages when leaving a multicast streamingtransmission. For example, when a user is viewing a first channel andthen switches to second channel, a leave message may be transmitted bythe destination node for leaving the first channel, and a join messagemay be transmitted by the destination node for joining the secondchannel. Using multicast transmission, a system can send a packet ofdata (e.g., content data) once for receipt by multiple destinationnodes. Multicast addressing may utilize a variety of different transportlayer protocols, such as Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) or is UserDatagram Protocol (UDP).

Optionally, the content scheduling system operator (or other entity) mayrun advertisements on third party content sites. For example, thecontent scheduling system operator may purchase keywords correspondingto content, such as a video (e.g., a music video of a popularperformer). Then, when a user of a third party content site performs asearch using search terms that correspond to the keywords, anadvertisement (which may comprise a link, text, an image/frame) for thevideo may be identified and displayed to the user on the user'sterminal. When the user clicks on the advertisement/link for the video,the video may be played to the user. Optionally, the video is played viathe site hosted by the content scheduling system. Optionally, the videois played via a third party content site. The content scheduling systemmay identify a channel that it determines the user may like based atleast in part on the user selection of the video (e.g., by identifying asimilar theme, subject matter, etc. using/comparing metadata associatedwith the channels and the video). For example, prior to the userselecting the video, an association of the video with a channel mayoptionally be performed, so that once a user selects the video, thesystem already “knows” which channel to select. The content schedulingsystem may detect or determine when the video has finished playing tothe user and then cause the user to be provided with videos from theselected channel (e.g., in accordance with the channel schedule). Forexample, the currently playing program for the selected channel may bestreamed to the user terminal for display to the user. The channel maybe identified to the user by name, channel number, and/or otherwise.

Optionally, advertisement insertion points may be assigned by aprogrammer to different points within a playlist, such as before orafter a given clip in a playlist. Thus, rather than specifying anadvertisement insertion time, the insertion points are associated withthe beginning and/or endings of clips within a playlist, such as aplaylist of clips that forms a program. The advertisements may compriselinear advertisements (advertisements that appear before, after, orduring a break in the video content (sometimes referred to as pre-roll,post-roll, or mid-roll)) and/or non-linear advertisements(advertisements that appear along with the video content (e.g., overlaysthat cover part of the video as it plays)). The advertisements may beserved by an advertisement server.

Optionally, an operator may specify a maximum number of minutes and/orquantity of advertisements that may be added to a playlist. For example,if the program is scheduled to be 30 minutes long (includingadvertisements), and the corresponding playlist includes 22 minutes ofcontent, then only 8 minutes of the program time is allocated toadvertisements. When the programmer adds an advertisement insertionpoint, the programmer may specify the length (in time) of theadvertisement to be inserted. The programming tool may calculate thecurrent program length (including the base program and the currentadvertisement insertions) and optionally continuously display the totaltime to the programmer. The system may compare the current total timeagainst the scheduled program time. Optionally, if the programmerattempts to add an advertisement insertion point with an associated timelength that would cause the total length of the program to exceed thescheduled length, an error notice may be generated and presented to theprogrammer, and optionally the programming tool will prevent theaddition of the advertisement insertion point.

Example processes will now be described with reference to the figures.The processes may be performed by or using the systems disclosed hereinor by or with other systems. It is understood that not all the followingprocesses need to be performed, nor do all the process states need to beperformed.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example process that identifies whether apreviously scheduled content item, such as a clip scheduled as part of aprogram composed of multiple clips, is currently available. The processmay optionally be performed using the content substitution modulediscussed above. At block 700, a determination is made as to whether theprocess should evaluate the availability of one or more content items(e.g., video clips, etc.) that had previously been scheduled to beincluded in the program. For example, a rule may be defined that statesthat the availability evaluation is to be performed a specified periodof time before the program is scheduled to be presented, or a specifiedperiod of time before the content item is scheduled to be presented.Optionally in addition or instead, the rule may specify a specific dayand/or time at which the availability evaluation is to be performed.

At block 702, a program definition for the program scheduled at a firsttime period is accessed from a data store of program definitions. Forexample, the program definition may indicate which content items areincluded in the program and the display ordering of the content items,the content items' lengths, the start time of a given content itemrelative to the beginning of the program (e.g., content item 3 begins 5minutes into the program), and may include locators (e.g., URLs) for thecontent items. The program definition may have been established days,weeks, months, or other time period before the next showing of theprogram. At block 704, at least partly in response to the determinationthat the availability evaluation is to be performed, a determination ismade for a given content item as to whether the content item is stillavailable. For example, as similarly discussed elsewhere herein, a querymay be issued to the hosting site via an API regarding the availabilityof the content item, and the response, if any, will be received from thehosting system, the response indicating whether or not the clip is stillavailable (or the host system may provide no response, which mayindicate that the content item is no longer available).

If the process determines that the content item is available, at block706 the process enables the content to be streamed as scheduled duringthe first time period.

If the process determines that the content item is no longer available,at block 708 the process may identify a substitute content item from apool of content items or from one or more other sources (optionallyincluding a pool of content items stored and maintained by the contentscheduling process) having one or more specified similar properties(e.g., subject, length, source, creator, posting date, popularity,etc.). By way of example, a pool of substitute content items (or othercontent) may have previously been manually or automatically identifiedfor the specific program (e.g., a dedicated program pool). The processmay then select the substitute content item (or other content) from theprogram pool based at least in part on the similarly to the length (intime) of the no longer available content item. Optionally, in additionto or instead of using a dedicated program pool of substitute backupcontent items, the process may search for and select substitute contentitems from a broader pool (e.g., a pool specific to a given channel) orfrom third party content hosting sites.

As similarly, discussed elsewhere herein, optionally, the process mayselect substitute content that is longer than the time period of theunavailable content, and may truncate or edit out the excess contentcorresponding to the time that exceeds that of the unavailable content.Optionally, if the process selects substitute content that is longerthan that of the unavailable content, the process may delete othercontent from the program to compensate (e.g., the process may deletepreviously included promotional/advertising content for other programs).Optionally instead, the process may select substitute content that is nolonger than the time period of the unavailable content. Optionally, thecurrently unavailable content item may be substituted using two or morecontent items that combined have about the same length as the currentlyunavailable content item. Optionally, rather than using a substitutecontent item to replace a recorded content item, live content (or othercontent type) may be specified, such as a microblog or social networkstream.

At block 710, the process enables the recorded and/or live substitutecontent item(s) to be streamed to a user terminal in place of theoriginal content item during the first time period.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example process for determining whethersupplemental content is needed for a program will be discussed. Theprocess may optionally be performed using the supplemental contentidentification module discussed above. At block 802, a programdefinition for a program scheduled at a first time period is accessed.For example, the program definition may indicate the content items thatare included in the program and the ordering of the content items fordisplay, the content items' lengths, the start time of a given contentitem relative to the beginning of the program, and may include locatorsfor the content items. Some or all of the content items may be hosted bythird party hosting sites. For example, the content items may include afirst content item (e.g., a video clip or other content) hosted by athird party site server, where the first content item has a first timelength, where the first time length may include time allocated for anadvertisement (e.g., a 30 second video advertisement) as well as for theprimary, non-advertising content. The program definition and the contentitem time lengths may have been established days, weeks, months, orother time period before the next showing of the program. At block 804,a first span of time is allocated for the first content item hosted bythe third party site server, where the first span of time is longer thanthe first time length of the first item.

At block 806, the current length of the first content item isdetermined. The current length may be the current total content itemlength (e.g., including an advertisement that will be or is currentlybeing served from an advertisement server, where the currentadvertisement may be a different advertisement and have a different timelength the previously allocated first time length). For example, a rulemay be defined that states that the length evaluation is to be performeda specified period of time before the program is scheduled to bepresented, or a specified period of time before the first content itemis next scheduled to be presented (e.g., within 1 second, within 15seconds, within 30 seconds, 1 day or other period of time prior to thenext presentation of the first content item). Optionally in addition orinstead, the rule may specify a specific day and/or time at which thelength evaluation is to be performed.

The process may examine the first content item (e.g., the content itemmetadata that indicates the advertisement length and/or the content itemlength) to determine the current total content item length (includingthe advertisement from the advertisement server). For example, theprocess may optionally use an API to access the content item lengthwithout the advertisement from the content hosting system.

At block 806, a determination is made as to whether the current totalcontent item length is shorter than the allocated first span of time forthe first content item. If the total content item length is shorter thanallocated first span of time for the first content item (or for multiplecontent items in a given program), at block 808, the process mayidentify and select other content to fill out the time (e.g., thetime=the first span of time−current total content item length). Thefill-in, supplemental content may be selected based on its length andoptionally based on its relevancy to the program and/or on othercriteria (e.g., subject, source, creator, posting date, popularity,etc.). If the process determines that the content item is shorter thanthe allocated first span of time, the process may identify fill-incontent, which may be in the form of one or more video content items orother content items (e.g., still images, blogs streams, etc.).

Optionally, the process may select fill-in, supplemental content that islonger than the time period that needs to be filled in, and willtruncate or edit out the excess content corresponding to the time thatexceeds the period that needs to be filled in. Optionally, if theprocess selects fill-in content that is longer than the time period thatneeds to be filled in, the process may delete other content from theprogram to compensate (e.g., the process may delete previously includedpromotional/advertising content for other programs). The fill-in contentmay correspond to the subject matter of the program, may be promotionalcontent for other programs, or may be advertisement content for one ormore products or services. Optionally, the fill-in content may beretrieved from a pool of content items maintained by the process or fromone or more other sources. By way of example, a pool of fill-in contentitems may have been manually or automatically identified for thespecific program (e.g., a dedicated program pool). The process may thenselect the fill-in content item from the program pool based at least inpart on the similarity to the length (in time) of the content itemunderrun.

At block 812, the fill-in, supplemental content is streamed during theprogram.

As noted above, the length of a given content item (e.g., a video clip)in a program may vary for a variety of reasons, such as a change in thetime length of an advertisement (e.g., a video advertisement). In theprevious example, the total content time length for an item of content(e.g., including an item of primary content and an advertisement)decreased from when the item of content was originally scheduled as partof a program. However, it is also possible that total content timelength for an item of content (e.g., including an item of primarycontent and an advertisement) may increase from when the item of contentwas originally scheduled as part of a program. This increase in time mayalso be caused by content buffering delays on a user's terminal orelsewhere. Buffering delays may be reported to the system by the contentplayer (which may be a third party content player utilized by theunified content player executing on the user terminal) and/or the systemmay infer a delay from playback status information from the contentplayer. For example, the content player may report the current positionin time and/or by frame of the playback of content, and the system maycompare the report current position to the scheduled position todetermine if there is a playback delay on the user terminal.

Thus, for example, if a program was scheduled to run for 30 minutes, butat the scheduled viewing time the total content time length of an itemof content included in the program is 30 seconds longer than originallyscheduled (of if there was a 30 second buffering delay), the total timefor the program will now be 30 minutes and 30 seconds. In order to dealwith this technical challenge, an example technique is to truncate theend of the program (e.g., the last 30 seconds) to ensure the nextprogram begins as scheduled. However, this may provide an unpleasantuser viewing experience, as a key portion of the program may be cut off.

Another technique, sometimes referred to herein as a time shiftadjustment process, that may optionally be used is to enable a firstprogram to be shown to the user without truncation, even if the firstprogram overruns its scheduled time (as scheduled in the electronicprogram guide), and to delay the playback of the next, adjacent programso that the next, adjacent program does not start until 30 seconds (orother delay period) after its scheduled start time. For example, thedelay may be determined by calculating the time difference between anamount of time originally allocated for a given item of content and theactual play time. Optionally, the electronic program guide may bedynamically adjusted to reflect the extended time of the first programand/or the delayed start and/or end of the next program (and optionallyof still additional subsequent programs). Optionally, the electronicprogram guide is not adjusted to reflect the extended time of the firstprogram and/or the delayed start and/or end of the next program. Asdiscussed herein, the various items of content included in a program mayoptionally be streamed to the user terminal from various content sourcesfor playback via a content player.

Optionally, in the situation where the user may experience a time shift(e.g., as a result of an advertisement that ran longer than itsallocated time or as a result of buffering delays), the time shiftadjustment process may choose to not play or inhibit playing of one ormore upcoming advertisements in order to allow the program or channelbeing viewed by the user to ‘catch up’ to the originally scheduled“live,” non-time shifted timeline.

The foregoing technique may be dynamically performed on aviewer-by-viewer basis. Thus, if a first user is viewing the firstprogram (with the extended time), then the next, adjacent program starttime may be delayed, as discussed above. However, if a second user isnot viewing the first program (or had been viewing the first program butwithout delays, such as might be caused by buffering on the first userterminal), but then begins viewing the next, adjacent program (e.g., byselecting the next, adjacent program via the electronic program guide),the next adjacent program will begin playing to the second user via acontent player at the originally scheduled time.

Thus, two different users watching the same time-scheduled program mayactually view them with a time shift comprising a relative time skew(e.g., 30 seconds apart in this example), where the relative time skewmay be based on changes in program length of one or more programs beingviewed by one user that are not being viewed by another user or an aplayback delay (e.g., a buffering delay) that might affect one user butnot another user. Further, optionally the electronic program guide ofthe first user is dynamically adjusted to take into account the extendedlength of the first program, while the electronic program guide of thesecond user is not dynamically adjusted.

As similarly discussed above, changes in time length of a given item ofcontent may be determined from metadata accessed via an API from thecontent source. Optionally, content buffering or other data may beaccessed from a user terminal to determine if a display of a given itemof content is being delayed as a result of buffering or other delays.

Referring now to FIG. 9, an example process for dynamically generating acustomized program guide is discussed. The process may optionally beperformed using the program guide generation module discussed above. Atblock 902, explicitly provided user preferences are accessed. Forexample, explicitly provided user preferences may be accessed from useraccount information which stores genre, program, subject matter, contentand/or channel likes and/or dislikes, user specifications of channels tobe blocked, user reminder instructions, user bookmarks, etc., previouslyprovided by the user.

At block 904, user viewing behavior (e.g., how long a user watchescontent per day or week, how many times in a specified time period theuser changes channels, how often per specified time period the usertries a new channel or show (a channel or show the user has notpreviously viewed), etc.) and viewing history may be accessed. At block906, inferred user preferences may be determined or accessed. Forexample, a user's likes and/or dislikes may be inferred from the user'sviewing history, user navigation, and viewing behavior, etc. By way ofillustration it may be inferred that the user's most viewed channels ina specified past time period (e.g., the last 30 days) are the user'smost preferred channels. On the other hand, if a user frequentlyswitches to a specific channel for short periods of time (e.g., a sportsnews channel), the process may infer that, even though the user does notspend long period of time viewing the channel, the channel is still astrongly preferred channel.

At block 910, a personalized, dynamically generated program guide isgenerated based at least in part on the explicitly provided userpreferences and/or the inferred user preferences. For example, theexplicitly provided user preferences and/or the inferred userpreferences may be used in determining the ordering of channels in theelectronic program guide (e.g., which channels are presented first,second, third, etc.); which, if any channels are to excluded from theprogram guide (e.g., channels that the system determines are of lowinterest to the user); which channels are to be highlighted (e.g., viacolor, animation, pop-up interfaces or otherwise, etc.), what types ofinformation are to be included in the program guide, etc. Thepersonalized, dynamically generated program guide may then be providedfor display to a user terminal.

Referring now to FIG. 10, an example process for automaticallyassembling a program from multiple content items will be discussed. Theprocess may optionally be performed using the automatic programgeneration module discussed above. At block 1002, a user interface isprovided via which a programmer (where the programmer programs shows andmay be unfamiliar with software programming languages) can specifycriteria and rules for selecting content items for a program. Forexample, the user interface may enable a programmer to specify a namefor the program, keywords associated with the subject matter of theprogram, a program length, a maximum content item length, a minimumcontent item length, the desired content-type (e.g., recorded videoclips, still images, social media postings, blog streams, etc.), contentsources (e.g., content hosting sites), content item popularitythresholds, content item author popularity thresholds, social influenceratings (e.g., scores or rankings), etc.

At block 1004, the process identifies content that satisfies thespecified criteria, and ensures that the total length of the assembledof the content items, optionally including advertising, does not exceedthe specified program length by keeping a running total of the itemcontent being added to the program. For example, the process may access,via various content hosting APIs, associated metadata to determine ifthe criteria are met before selecting a given content item to beincluded in the program. For example, as part of the process ofdetermining if a given item of content matches keywords included in thecriteria, the process may compare keywords specified by the programmerto tags associated with the item content to determine if there is amatch.

At block 1006, the process assembles the program, including the selectedcontent items, and programs the content items to appear in a specifiedorder. The program may then optionally be included in a program guide,and users may access and view the program via their user terminals.

Referring now to FIG. 11, an example process for dynamically generatinga program or channel is described. The process may optionally beperformed using the automatic program generation module discussed above.The process may be performed in substantially real time. The generatedcontent may include non-scheduled content and/or content notspecifically selected by the user (e.g., where the program or channel isnot simply a playlist defined by the user). At block 1102, the processdetects a user activation of a dynamic program generation control(sometimes referred to herein as a randomizer control) presented via auser interface of a user terminal.

At block 1104, the process accesses from memory dynamic programgeneration (randomizer) rules. For example, the randomizer rules mayinclude one or more of the following: do not include more than aspecified number of content items from the same author, do not includemore than a specified number of content items from the same source, donot include content items longer than a first specified length, do notinclude content items shorter than a second specified length, thedynamically generated program shall be a first specified length, onlyinclude content meeting a specified popularity threshold, only includecontent from authors meeting a specified popularity threshold, onlyinclude content from authors meeting a specified social influence ratingthreshold, etc.

At block 1106, the process accesses user account information (e.g.,explicitly provided user preferences (e.g., including likes and/ordislikes)), inferred user preferences (e.g., including likes and/ordislikes), user specifications of channels to be blocked, user reminderinstructions, user bookmarks, user viewing history, user navigation andviewing behavior, etc.). The process selects one or more content itemsbased at least in part on the user account information and/or thedynamic program generation rules. At block 1108, the process dynamicallygenerates a program using the selected content and causes the content tobe streamed to the user terminal.

Referring now to FIG. 12, an example process for fast forwarding orrewinding through a programmed composed of content items from multiplecontent sources (e.g., video hosting sites, etc.) is described. Theprocess may optionally be performed using the unified player modulediscussed above.

At block 1202, a program comprised of multiple items of content frommultiple sources (e.g., from a plurality of content hosting serversoperated by different entities) is being streamed to a user terminal.For example, the program may include a first content item from a firstsource and a second content item from a second source. The user issues acontent navigation instruction by activating a content navigationcontrol, such as a fast forward control or a rewind control. At block1204, a determination is made as to whether execution of the navigationinstruction will cause a content boundary will be traversed. Forexample, the process may determine whether a fast forward operation,began while the first content item is being streamed from a firstsource, will exceed the length of the first content item. If the fastforward operation, began while the first content item is being streamedfrom a first source, will exceed the length of the first content item,then at block 1206, the fast forward process proceeds through the firstcontent item from the first source (e.g., with selected frames from thefirst content item being presented during the fast forward process), andat block 1208, the fast forward process proceeds through at least aportion of the second content item from the second source (e.g., withselected frames from the second content item being presented during thefast forward process).

Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of anyof the processes or algorithms described herein can be performed in adifferent sequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g.,not all described operations or events are necessary for the practice ofthe algorithm). Moreover, in certain embodiments, operations or eventscan be performed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing,interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or onother parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, routines, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosedherein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. The described functionality can beimplemented in varying ways for each particular application, but suchimplementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the disclosure.

Moreover, the various illustrative logical blocks and modules describedin connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implementedor performed by a machine, such as a general purpose processor device, adigital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or otherprogrammable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discretehardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform thefunctions described herein. A general purpose processor device can be amicroprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor device can be acontroller, microcontroller, or state machine, combinations of the same,or the like. A processor device can include electrical circuitryconfigured to process computer-executable instructions. In anotherembodiment, a processor device includes an FPGA or other programmabledevice that performs logic operations without processingcomputer-executable instructions. A processor device can also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration. Although described herein primarily with respect todigital technology, a processor device may also include primarily analogcomponents. A computing environment can include any type of computersystem, including, but not limited to, a computer system based on amicroprocessor, a mainframe computer, a digital signal processor, aportable computing device, a device controller, or a computationalengine within an appliance, to name a few.

The elements of a method, process, routine, or algorithm described inconnection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be embodieddirectly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processordevice, or in a combination of the two. A software module can reside inRAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory,registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium. An exemplary storagemedium can be coupled to the processor device such that the processordevice can read information from, and write information to, the storagemedium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to theprocessor device. The processor device and the storage medium can residein an ASIC. The ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In the alternative,the processor device and the storage medium can reside as discretecomponents in a user terminal.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “may,”“might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically statedotherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, isgenerally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, whileother embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/orsteps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended toimply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required forone or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarilyinclude logic for deciding, with or without other input or prompting,whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to beperformed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,”“including,” “having,” and the like are synonymous and are usedinclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additionalelements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term “or”is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so thatwhen used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or”means one, some, or all of the elements in the list.

Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, Z,”unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with thecontext as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may beeither X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z).Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and shouldnot, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at leastone of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.

While the phrase “click” may be used with respect to a user selecting acontrol, menu selection, or the like, other user inputs may be used,such as voice commands, text entry, gestures, etc. User inputs may, byway of example, be provided via an interface, such as via text fields,wherein a user enters text, and/or via a menu selection (e.g., a dropdown menu, a list or other arrangement via which the user can check viaa check box or otherwise make a selection or selections, a group ofindividually selectable icons, etc.). When the user provides an input oractivates a control, a corresponding computing system may perform thecorresponding operation. Some or all of the data, inputs andinstructions provided by a user may optionally be stored in a systemdata store (e.g., a database), from which the system may access andretrieve such data, inputs, and instructions. The notifications and userinterfaces described herein may be provided via a Web page, a dedicatedor non-dedicated phone application, computer application, a shortmessaging service message (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.), instant messaging,email, push notification, audibly, and/or otherwise.

The user terminals described herein may be in the form of a mobilecommunication device (e.g., a cell phone), laptop, tablet computer,interactive television, game console, media streaming device,head-wearable display, networked watch, etc. The user terminals mayoptionally include displays, user input devices (e.g., touchscreen,keyboard, mouse, voice recognition, etc.), network interfaces, etc.While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointedout novel features as applied to various embodiments, it can beunderstood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in theform and details of the devices or algorithms illustrated can be madewithout departing from the spirit of the disclosure. As can berecognized, certain embodiments described herein can be embodied withina form that does not provide all of the features and benefits set forthherein, as some features can be used or practiced separately fromothers. The scope of certain embodiments disclosed herein is indicatedby the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. Allchanges which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of theclaims are to be embraced within their scope.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, the methodcomprising: maintaining, using a computer system, a data store of videocontent randomizer rules; maintaining a data store of user informationin non-transitory computer readable memory, the user informationcomprising: explicitly provided user preferences, and user viewinghistory with respect to streaming video content; inferring userpreferences using at least a portion of the user viewing history withrespect to streaming video content; causing a user interface comprisinga randomizer control to be presented on a user terminal remote from thecomputer system which when activated is configured to automaticallycause an item of non-scheduled video content to be selected; detecting,over a network, a user activation of the randomizer control presented onthe user terminal; in response to detecting the user activation of therandomizer control presented on the user terminal: automaticallyselecting an item of non-scheduled video content based at least in parton: the randomizer rules; the explicitly provided user preferences, andthe inferred user preferences; causing the selected item ofnon-scheduled video content to be streamed over the network to the userterminal, wherein the automatically selected item of non-scheduled videocontent is not selected by the user.
 2. The computer-implemented methodas defined in claim 1, wherein the user interface comprising therandomizer control is further configured with a program guide comprisingan identification of a plurality of themed channels comprising videoprograms with identified start times and end times, wherein the userinferred preferences are determined based at least in part on usernavigation behavior, and wherein the randomizer rules includes at leasta first rule indicating that only content having a time length within afirst range is to be selected and a second rule indicating that thatonly content meeting at least a first popularity criterion is to beselected.
 3. The computer-implemented method as defined in claim 1,wherein the user interface comprising the randomizer control is furtherconfigured with a program guide comprising an identification of aplurality of themed channels comprising video programs with identifiedstart times and end times.
 4. The computer-implemented method as definedin claim 1, wherein the user interface comprising the randomizer controlis further configured with a program guide comprising an identificationof a plurality of items of video content.
 5. The computer-implementedmethod as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising causing theselected item of video content to be displayed for a first period oftime, the first period of time less than the selected item of videocontent length, enable the user to continue playing the selected item ofpast the first period time by activating a corresponding control, andwhen the user does not activate the corresponding control, automaticallycausing a second item of content to be displayed.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method as defined in claim 1, wherein the userinferred preferences are determined based at least in part on usernavigation behavior.
 7. The computer-implemented method as defined inclaim 1, the method further comprising generating and presenting aprogram recommendation based at least in part on user navigationbehavior.
 8. The computer-implemented method as defined in claim 1, themethod further comprising generating and presenting a programrecommendation based at least in part on user bookmarks.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method as defined in claim 1, wherein therandomizer rules includes at least a first rule indicating that onlycontent having a time length within a first range is to be selected. 10.The computer-implemented method as defined in claim 1, wherein therandomizer rules includes at least a first rule specifying that onlycontent meeting at least a first popularity criterion are to beselected.
 11. A system, comprising: at least one processing device; anetwork interface configured to communicate over a network with a videodata store; non-transitory memory storing programmatic code that whenexecuted by the at least one processing device, cause the system toperform operations comprising: maintain a data store of user informationin non-transitory computer readable memory, the user informationcomprising: explicitly provided user preferences, and/or user viewinghistory with respect to streaming video content; infer user preferencesusing at least a portion of the user viewing history with respect tostreaming video content; enable a user interface comprising a randomizercontrol, which when activated is configured to cause an item ofnon-scheduled video content to be automatically selected, to bepresented on a user terminal remote from the system; detect, using thenetwork interface, a user activation of the randomizer control presentedon the user terminal; access randomizer rules; automatically select anitem of non-scheduled video content based at least in part on: therandomizer rules; and the inferred user preferences; at least partly inresponse to detecting the user activation of the randomizer controlpresented on the user terminal: cause the automatically selected item ofnon-scheduled video content to be streamed over the network to the userterminal, wherein the automatically selected item of non-scheduled videocontent is not selected by the user.
 12. The system as defined in claim11, wherein the user interface comprising the randomizer control isfurther configured with a program guide comprising an identification ofa plurality of themed channels comprising video programs, wherein theuser inferred preferences are determined based at least in part on usernavigation behavior, and wherein the randomizer rules includes at leasta first rule indicating that only content having a time length within afirst range is to be selected and a second rule indicating that thatonly content meeting at least a first popularity criterion is to beselected.
 13. The system as defined in claim 11, wherein the userinterface comprising the randomizer control is further configured with aprogram guide comprising an identification of a plurality of themedchannels comprising video programs.
 14. The system as defined in claim11, wherein the user interface comprising the randomizer control isfurther configured with a program guide comprising an identification ofa plurality of items of video content.
 15. The system as defined inclaim 11, the operations further comprising causing the selected item ofvideo content to be displayed for a first period of time, the firstperiod of time less than the selected item of video content length,enable the user to continue playing the selected item of past the firstperiod time by activating a corresponding control, and when the userdoes not activate the corresponding control, automatically causing asecond item of content to be displayed.
 16. The system as defined inclaim 11, wherein the user inferred preferences are determined based atleast in part on user navigation behavior.
 17. The system as defined inclaim 11, the operations further comprising generating and presenting aprogram recommendation based at least in part on user navigationbehavior.
 18. The system as defined in claim 11, the operations furthercomprising generating and presenting a program recommendation based atleast in part on user bookmarks.
 19. The system as defined in claim 11,wherein the randomizer rules includes at least a first rule indicatingthat only content having a time length within a first range is to beselected.
 20. The system as defined in claim 11, wherein the randomizerrules includes at least a first rule specifying that only contentmeeting a first popularity criterion are to be selected. 21.Non-transitory memory storing programmatic code that when executed by atleast one processing device, cause the system to perform operationscomprising: access user information stored in non-transitory computerreadable memory, the user information comprising: explicitly provideduser preferences, and/or user viewing history with respect to streamingvideo content; infer user preferences using at least a portion of theuser viewing history with respect to streaming video content; enable auser interface comprising a randomizer control, which when activated isconfigured to cause an item of non-scheduled video content to beautomatically selected, to be provided to the user via a user terminal;detect a user activation of the randomizer control provided via the userterminal; access randomizer rules; automatically select an item ofnon-scheduled video content based at least in part on: the randomizerrules; and the inferred user preferences; at least partly in response todetecting the user activation of the randomizer control provided to theuser via the user terminal: cause the selected item of non-scheduledvideo content to be streamed over a network to the user terminal. 22.The non-transitory memory as defined in claim 21, wherein the userinterface comprising the randomizer control is further configured with aprogram guide comprising an identification of a plurality of themedchannels comprising video programs, wherein the user inferredpreferences are determined based at least in part on user navigationbehavior, and wherein the randomizer rules includes at least a firstrule indicating that only content having a time length within a firstrange is to be selected and a second rule indicating that that onlycontent meeting at least a first popularity criterion is to be selected.23. The non-transitory memory as defined in claim 21, wherein the userinterface comprising the randomizer control is further configured with aprogram guide comprising an identification of a plurality of themedchannels comprising video programs.
 24. The non-transitory memory asdefined in claim 21, wherein the user interface comprising therandomizer control is further configured with a program guide comprisingan identification of a plurality of items of video content.
 25. Thenon-transitory memory as defined in claim 21, the operations furthercomprising causing the selected item of video content to be displayedfor a first period of time, the first period of time less than theselected item of video content length, enable the user to continueplaying the selected item of past the first period time by activating acorresponding control, and when the user does not activate thecorresponding control, automatically causing a second item of content tobe displayed.
 26. The non-transitory memory as defined in claim 21,wherein the user inferred preferences are determined based at least inpart on user navigation behavior.
 27. The non-transitory memory asdefined in claim 21, the operations further comprising generating andpresenting a program recommendation based at least in part on usernavigation behavior.
 28. The non-transitory memory as defined in claim21, the operations further comprising generating and presenting aprogram recommendation based at least in part on user bookmarks.
 29. Thenon-transitory memory as defined in claim 21, wherein the randomizerrules includes at least a first rule indicating that only content havinga time length within a first range is to be selected.
 30. Thenon-transitory memory as defined in claim 21, wherein the randomizerrules includes at least a first rule specifying that only contentmeeting a first popularity criterion are to be selected.